Pentala Island

Last week I was visiting Pentala Island for the first time. 

Pentala is the highest island in Southern Finland and it is located in Espoo Suvisaaristo.

The island has a museum, Archipelago Museum Pentala, consisting of fifteen different buildings. The oldest building is a fisherman's cottage, built in the early 1790s.  

You will also find a restaurant on the island, Paven, which used to be a pavilion for sailors. There is also a summer café, open during the museum opening hours.

There is a nature trail to Lake Pentalanjärvi (an inland lake) and the Diksand beach. The 2.3-kilometer nature trail starts from the Pentala Museum Area. Approximately half of Pentala is a nature conservation area, and the island has a rich variety of animal life.

Pentala Island is well worth a visit. We came there with an old ship, Svanhild af Borgå. You can visit Pentala with Espoo's archipelago boat or by your own boat.

Unfortunately the weather was rainy and windy while visiting the island. We were mostly inside, and didn't have the chance to take the nature trail to the lake and Diksand beach. 

The island of Seili in October

We visited the Island of Seili in October. It looked so pretty that I had to take a few pictures. There is also a church on the island, now it was closed, so we didn't have a chance to see it. The café was open. 

The island has an interesting or actually terrifying history. There has been a leper hospital, that the Swedish King Gustaf Adolf II gave a order to build in 1619. The remote location of the island was the reason why it was built there. The leprosy began to disappear and in the 1700s a mental asylum was built on the main island. Mentally ill persons where treated there until 1962. The University of Turku has taken over the buildings after that.

There has been humans living on the island for a long time. Seili has most likely been almost treeless in 1600-1900s. Now you will find forest on the island.

The island has opened for tourists in 2017.

If not thinking about the history, the island is a very beautiful place.

More about the island:

Visit Seili