The Whaling station at Áir is the only remaining whaling station of the seven whaling stations that were established in the Faroe Islands around 1900. It is also the only whaling station of Norwegian origin that is still standing in the Northern Hemisphere.

The station is an example of one of the earliest industrial enterprises in the Faroe Islands. The station was part of a global Norwegian whaling industry that came to the Faroe Islands around the turn of the twentieth century.

Only three of the 214 whaling stations that once operated along the shores of the world’s oceans are still standing. Most of these stations were Norwegian. One of the three remaining stations is in Albany, Australia, another is in South Georgia in the Southern Ocean, and the third is here at Áir.

In 1958, the Áir whaling station ceased operating as an industrial plant producing whale oil and dry fodder for export, as well as supplying whale meat to ships and households in the Faroe Islands. However, some activity continued at the station during the 1960s and 1970s, and the last whale was processed at the plant in the early 1980s. Commercial whaling was at this time increasingly restricted and eventually banned through international agreements.

The Áir whaling station is of great historical value, not only to the local area of Sundalagið, where there were three whaling stations, but to the Faroe Islands as a whole. Whaling played an important role in Faroese society until around 1960, both economically and culturally, as well as providing an important source of employment.

Since spring 2010, the Faroe Islands National Museum has been working at the station, documenting the site, collecting and preserving tools and equipment, registering objects and buildings, and carrying out conservation and repair work on the buildings.

The whaling station opened to the public in 2019. It is open during the summer and at other times by appointment.