Lågskär Lighthouse

Where is Lågskär?

Lågskär is a low, exposed lighthouse island in the Sea of Åland, south of Lemland’s archipelago. Swedish Wikipedia and the water taxi Fiskelyckan put it about 15 nautical miles south of Mariehamn, while Visit Åland says 17. The island covers about 50 hectares and is surrounded by some fifteen smaller skerries and countless rocks and shoals.

Those shoals are the reason the site has been marked for shipping for centuries. Lågskär is an important landmark for anyone crossing the Sea of Åland between Åland and Sweden.

From stone cairn to concrete tower

Lågskär’s history is a cycle of building, war and rebuilding:

Year	Event
17th century	A stone cairn marks the shoals
1794	Pilot captain Nils Åhman has a 23 m wooden beacon built
1808 to 1809	The beacon is destroyed in the Finnish War
1814	The beacon is rebuilt
1840	The light is lit for the first time, in September
1859	A stone tower replaces the wooden beacon after the Crimean War
1915	The Russian military blows up the lighthouse and burns the buildings
1920	The present reinforced-concrete tower is completed
1961	The light is automated and the keepers leave

These dates come from Swedish and Finnish Wikipedia. Finnish Wikipedia dates the first cairn to 1696 and says it was destroyed in 1714, during the Great Northern War occupation of Finland.

Visit Åland describes the 1840 light as Åland’s first lighthouse. The 1920 tower is 33 m high according to Visit Åland. When it was built, it received a large AGA lens that was one of the first with automatic rotation.

Lågskär in wartime

Its position in the middle of the Sea of Åland has left Lågskär exposed in war. During the Crimean War in 1854, the light was put out and the lamp removed for safekeeping. During the First World War, in 1915, the Russian military authorities blew up the lighthouse and burned the other buildings.

On 11 April 1918 the German battleship SMS Rheinland ran aground off Lågskär in fog while the station was unmanned. Two men died, and the ship was only refloated in July with a floating crane brought from Danzig. That same year the Germans built a temporary wooden lattice tower before the present one went up.

Photographs of the lighthouse from the war years 1939 to 1945 survive in the Finnish wartime photo archive SA-kuva, including the image at the top of this page. We have not been able to confirm from available sources how the island was used during the Second World War, so we leave that period aside.

Lågskär today: a lighthouse without keepers

The light is still in use but has been unmanned since 1961. That ended about 120 years of keepers living on the island, apart from the war years. The brighter Flötjan lighthouse nearby had already been completed in 1953, reducing Lågskär’s importance. According to Finnish Wikipedia, the light has run on wind power since 1986 and on solar panels since the early 2000s.

Lågskär Lighthouse today	Details
Light	white flash every 12 seconds
Focal height	about 42 m above sea level
Range	about 11 nautical miles
Power	wind from 1986, solar panels since the 2000s

The light details come from English Wikipedia, based on international lists of lights. Mariners should always use official, up-to-date charts and light lists.

The lighthouse has also had its own stamp: Åland issued a Lågskär Lighthouse stamp on 8 May 1992 as part of a lighthouse series. Visit Åland also notes that the island was a filming location for The Disciple (Lärjungen), Finland’s Oscar entry in 2013.

The bird station and nature

A bird station has operated on Lågskär since the 1960s. It is run by the Åland Bird Protection Society (Ålands fågelskyddsförening), which leases the keepers’ houses for bird observation and ringing. The ornithologists stay there temporarily during the season.

The island is a Natura 2000 site, and according to Finland’s Supreme Administrative Court it holds the country’s most important eider colony. The court ruled on 29 April 2025 that the Åland government’s 2024 permit to shoot white-tailed eagles to protect the eiders had been unlawful. Lågskär is also part of the Björkör and Lågskär Archipelago Ramsar site, designated in 1974.

How do you get to Lågskär?

There is no scheduled boat service to Lågskär, and a crossing of the Sea of Åland needs good weather.

• Tailor-made boat trip: Visit Åland refers to customised trips, for example with the water taxi Shipland, which lists Lågskär among its destinations. Prices are not published.
• Fiskelyckan: has a page about Lågskär but lists no departures or prices. Ask directly.
• The bird station: according to Finnish Wikipedia, anyone wishing to visit the bird station can contact the Åland Bird Protection Society, which arranges transport.
• Your own boat: the Sea of Åland is open water with many shoals around the island. Use up-to-date charts and check the weather.

The tower itself is reported to be closed to visitors. Birds are sensitive to disturbance during the breeding season, so keep your distance from the colonies.

See also

Closer to land you will find Rödhamn, the old harbour of refuge with its radio beacon museum, and Herröskatan, Lemland’s southern tip, where the bird tower looks out over the Sea of Åland.