Islands: Utö, Finland

Show us... Utö, Finland

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Utö is the southmost populated island in Finland.

1. Important landmark on the island is the lighthouse


2. The village


3. Houses on the slope


4. Pier


Note the red boats on the pier, Utö continues to host a pilot station and historically, majority of the villagers used to work in piloting or lighthouse maintenance. Another part of the island used to be a coastal artillery garrison, but the garrison was closed in 2005 and these days there is a hotel in the former barracks building.

5. Boat houses in the harbour


6. Typical landscape


7. Local chapel, Bönehuset


There is actually also another church on the island, but since it is on the midlevel on the lighthouse, it was found to be more practical to build also another place of worship on the ground level.

8. Rocky landscape and colourful vegetation


9. Sunset landscape


Edited by Micholand - 16 March 2023 at 16:38

waldo_posth wrote: There is a mysterious mood in many of these images - fascinating! In that sense #4 and #5 stand out for me. But there is also some frugal beauty, expecially in #8. Thank you, Heiki, for making me familiar with a location I have never heard of before.

Among Finnish bird watchers, the island is well known: especially in the spring, these outer island lure number of migrating birds as they are the first stop after long journey over the Baltic Sea.

Couple examples:

10. Common redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)


11. Spotted flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)


12. Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica)

Nice series and indeed, but not a surprise, never heard of the island.

However, after looking at Google Maps, I must have been flying almost over it from Stockholm to Turku, more than 20years ago