The Faroe Islands lie about 180 nautical miles north west of the Shetlands. Recent archaeological digs suggest long-term settlements were established there in the 4th century AD.
These were probably from Celtic people — suggested by today’s place names and hand-sized, stone crosses. Around 860AD the Vikings arrived, which brought the Faroes under Norway.
In 999AD the Catholic Church from Norway was introduced, but, around 1536, the Faroes along with other Nordic countries became Lutheran. In 1814 the Treaty of Kiel made the Faroes part of Denmark.
Changes
During the early- to mid-1800s its 1,400-year-old, agriculturally based society was giving way to a culture based on fishing. Before this, the islanders had used open fishing boats in the manner of small Viking ships, but now entrepreneurially minded Faroese were learning fishing skills from other countries and bought fishing smacks from Scotland and England, to be used further north, near Iceland and Greenland.
At the same time, a nationalistic spirit brought with it a desire to unshackle the Faroes from centuries-old Danish control. Change was in the air, and one of the biggest changes was about to come from Scotland.
On 4 September 1838, William Gibson Sloan was born in Dalry, Scotland. Twenty-three years later he was, by the grace of God, saved. He became an evangelist, visiting the Shetlands with books for the Religious Tract and Book Society of Scotland. During this time he heard about the Faroes from Shetland fishermen and felt he ought to minister to the spiritual condition of the 8,000 Faroese inhabitants. So, in summer 1865, he boarded a Shetland fishing smack and headed for the Faroes.
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