Lopra

About the village

Lopra is located in the municipality of Sumba along with the villages of Akrar, Sumba and the now deserted Víkarbyrgi, constituting the southernmost settlements in the Faroe Islands. The name Lopra may have its origin in the gaelic word “lobar” which translates into English as leprosy, and Lopra may be a pre-Norse settlement of Gaelic hermits from c. 6th to c. 8th century AD.
In 1901 a Norwegian company built a whaling station in Lopra. The whaling station had an important role in the village until 1953 when the hunt for whales ceased due to declining number of whales.
During the 1980s and 1990s there were attempts at drilling for oil and gas in Lopra, without success.