FAROE ISLANDS

FAROE ISLANDS / FØROYAR.

Hestur Island coast and Buygdin village.
Last stamp in a set of 5, issued on 07.09.1987.
Face value: 550 Faroese oyra.
Design: Ole Wich (b. 1953).
Engraved by Czesław Słania (1921-2005).
Printing: Offset lithography and recess.
Print: 426,000 copies.
Size: 31 x 41 mm.

Catalogs
- AFA No. 152.
- Michel No. 158.
- Scott No. 165.
- StampWorld No. 152.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 153.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 152.

Hestur (in Danish, Hestø) is one of the 18 islands that make up the Faroe archipelago, in the North Atlantic. Its area is 6.1 km² (2.4 sq mi) and its maximum elevation is in the Eggjarrók and Múlin mountains, both of 421 m (1,381 ft). The oldest Viking settlement, from the High Middle Ages, was Hælur, at the southern tip of the island. The school in the town of Hestur, on the east coast, was built in 1890 and the church in 1910; in 1913, the Bygdin pier was also established in its vicinity. Since January 1, 2005, the entire island is part of the municipality of Tórshavn, the largest in the archipelago. The total stable population of the island is about 40 inhabitants. On the west coast is a guillemot colony. In the north there is moorland with four small lakes, of which Fagradalsvatn is the largest.