The route starts by the boat basin north of the village Haraldssund. The path becomes more visible once you are a little further along the beach. Many brooks and streams are along the way heading north, and please be cautious where the bedrock is slippery.  

In the past, there was much communication between Haraldssund and Skarð, and the path between these two villages connected them for centuries.

It is uncertain how old the village of Haraldssund is; however, it is believed that both Haraldssund, Kunoy and Skarð are exceedingly old villages. Haraldssund is a calm place, and in the olden days, all the villages in Kunoy had boathouses in Fiskimøl, which is just south of where the tunnel entrance is today.

The route to Skarð is fascinating because it runs close to the beach, and you can hear the waves hit the cliffs and see the cliffs and mountains stand above you. Kunoy is the highest island in the Faroe Islands and has no less than six of the ten mountains that stand above 800-meters in the Faroe Islands. Many areas are not walkable, and we advise you not to wander into the mountains of Kunoy without an experienced guide.

Once you have walked about 1.5km, you arrive at Skarðsmannastíggj, where the men in Skarð would travel up after fishing with the men from Haraldssund men. First, they would head up Skarði and row with the Haraldssund men south to the rockface, and then from there, they would walk back north to Skarð.

The men in Skarð had a boathouse in Búðadal, and these ruins can be seen just north of Búðadal lake, which was the old indicator between the two villages. On days when the sea was too rough in Skarð, the men used the boathouse in Búðadal or rowed to Haraldssund.

After about 5km, you can see Skarð and the house ruins, which seem extremely small down by the beach. Whilst we walk towards Skarðdal, at 500-meters, the high rock edges under Kúvingarfjall and Middagsfjall start to appear. Once we reach Skarð, we can see right up on the mighty Skarði with the largest gorge in the Faroe Islands, the gravelly Skarðsgjógv.

Follow the path north of the village past the unique waterfall in Skarðdalsá; on the other side of the pool is Skálatoftir, which is also a ruined village. Then walk past the stone fence at the top until you suddenly arrive at the house ruins.

From the village, there is a decent path heading down to Kleivina, where you can see how difficult it would have been for Skarð people to float boats in the area.

On the 23rd of December in 1913, seven Skarð men and a boat were sunk and lost at sea due to sudden bad weather. The village lost all of their best working men in one day. Life became hard, and the village was deserted in 1919. There is a memorial set up in Skarð to remember the men lost at sea.

We recommend giving yourself time to enjoy the stillness and view in Skarð before you continueing back home.

If you decide to hike from Skarð to Kunoy through the gorge reaching an elevation of 618 metres, we only recommend doing this with an experienced guide. The route is challenging and potentially dangerous if you take the wrong path. This route is only suited for very experienced and fit hikers.