Observation tower
Over the islands.
Osmo Lundell — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Xepheid — CC BY-SA 4.0 · LPfi — CC BY-SA 3.0 · LPfi — CC BY-SA 3.0 · LPfi — CC BY-SA 3.0
The Kvarken Archipelago is a large group of islands on the Finnish side of the Kvarken, the narrowest part of the Gulf of Bothnia between Finland and Sweden. It includes the large islands of Replot and Björkö and more than 5,600 small islands, most of them in the municipality of Korsholm. The observation tower at Svedjehamn lies about 34 km in a straight line from Vaasa. In the Ice Ages the area lay under the Fennoscandian ice sheet, and when the ice retreated about 9,600 years ago the compressed land began to rise. It still rises by almost 10 mm a year, one of the fastest rates on Earth, so new islands keep appearing. In 2006 the archipelago joined Sweden's High Coast as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From the wooden observation tower you look over shallow bays, low islands and long parallel moraine ridges, covered in forest and meadow. On the shore stand red fishing huts, wooden boats and coastal meadows full of flowers. Short walking trails start at the tower and run through forest and along the shore. The coast is windy and changeable, so bring a jacket.
Over the islands.
Long and parallel.
Red on the shore.
Svedjehamn, Björkö, Korsholm, near Vaasa, Finland
The land rises almost 10 mm a year.
By car from Vaasa over the Replot bridge.