4 Lighthouses around Åland
The oldest manned lighthouses in Åland were built in the mid 1800s. The lighthouse keepers and their families lived in a barren and harsh environment a long way away from normal life in the community. Today, the lighthouses are automated and you can visit several of them either with your own boat or on a guided tour.
The lighthouses were often manned by three or four lighthouse keepers including the chief lighthouse keeper, who was their boss. Their life was hard – they had to endure many hardships and difficult situations on the skerries.
The number of lighthouse employees decreased in the 1950s as the lighthouses were automated. Märket was the last manned lighthouse in Åland.
Read more about the Åland lighthouses and visit the islands with a boat taxi or on a guided tour.
1. Märket
Finland’s westernmost landpoint, Märket lighthouse, is located in the middle of the Åland Sea, about 20 km from the Åland main island and about 25 km from the Swedish coastline. Märket was manned until 1976 when the last lighthouse keepers left the island. Now, it’s possible to visit Märket again thanks to Finland’s Lighthouse Society. Their own “lighthouse keepers” are on the spot to receive visitors from the middle of May until August or September.
What’s special about Märket is that the island is divided by the border between Sweden and Finland that runs through the island. Here you can, if you wish, stand with one foot in Sweden and the other in Finland. Märket also has a special status among radio amateur operators who wish to get in contact with this remote place.
A boat excursion to Märket offers many experiences for those with interest in wildlife. Here you can meet both seals and a rich birdlife with common eiders, black guillemots and razorbills.
Norrö Holiday Village organises trips from Käringsund in Eckerö to the lighthouse island.
2. Sälskär
An excursion to Sälskär lighthouse station in north-western Hammarland provides a whole raft of adventures in nature. For instance, there are plenty of curious razorbills and other birdlife here, and it’s not impossible to see a seal in the waters around the island.
Sälskär lighthouse was built in 1868 and was manned by a chief lighthouse keeper and two or three lighthouse keepers and their families until 1948. The lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in Finland. It reaches up to 44 metres above the sea, and can be seen from a distance of 12 km.
In the high season, there are boat trips every week on the excursion boat M/S Silvana from Skarpnåtö in Hammarland. The trip takes about 5 hours.
3. Lågskär
There are many sunken rocks around the exposed lighthouse island of Lågskär, which lies 17 nautical miles south of Mariehamn. This was why a beacon was set up on the island as far back as the 1600s. In 1840, Åland’s first lighthouse beacon was built here. The current one dates from 1920 and is 33 meters high. People lived here until 1961 when the lighthouse was automated.
Now there is an observatory station here and the old lighthouse residences are used by visiting ornithologists. The nature here is harsh but rich in its biodiversity. There’s a cobbled beach on the north side that is also worth seeing.
Did you know the island was the shooting location for the film “The Disciple”, the Finnish entry for the 2013 Oscars?
Customised tours here are available – you can book a tailor-made boat excursion with, for example, boat taxi Shipland.
4. Bogskär
It’s extremely difficult to land on Bogskär, a tiny islet in the middle of the northern part of the Baltic Sea, south of Mariehamn. If you come in your own boat, the best thing is to enjoy the lighthouse island from a distance.
The first lighthouse was built in 1882. In that time, four or five lighthouse keepers worked here for months in a row in difficult circumstances. It was hard to reach the island and it was a challenge to deliver food and other supplies for the men who worked here. Often the food was set into water and let flow to the rocky shore.
Finland’s first wireless telegraphy line was opened between Bogskär and Mariehamn in 1906. When World War I started, the lighthouse keepers left the island. After the war the lighthouse was replaced with a new, lower lighthouse that was automated. In 1981, a helicopter pad was built. Bogskär became a radar lighthouse and was equipped as a weather observatory. Nowadays it runs on solar energy.
