Fårö Island

Fårö is a small island separated from the northern tip of Gotland by a narrow strait, reached by a free ferry from Fårösund that runs throughout the day. The island has around 500 permanent residents and a character of its own — quieter and more austere than Gotland, with a treeless limestone landscape along the coast and dense pine woods inland.

The attractions are mostly natural: the Langhammars sea stacks on the west coast, the Digerhuvud raukar field on the north, good swimming beaches at Sudersand, and the particular quality of the light that drew Bergman here. The island is easily cycled in a day. The ferry from Fårösund runs frequently enough that it requires no planning — just arrive and board.

things to do sight
A story
Ingmar Bergman arrived on Fårö in 1960 during the shoot for Through a Glass Darkly and was so struck by the landscape — the flat limestone plain, the wind-bent pines, the raukar coast — that he built a house and spent most of the rest of his life there. He is buried in the churchyard at Fårö Church. The Bergman Center in Fårö village runs a summer exhibition documenting his decades on the island and the films he made here.