Märket Lighthouse

Märket is a bare skerry of about three hectares in the middle of the Sea of Åland, split between Finland and Sweden, and in 1885 the Russians built a lighthouse on it, accidentally on the Swedish side. The border was redrawn in 1985 in an S-shape that puts the lighthouse in Finland while keeping the land areas equal, which makes it one of the strangest borders anywhere. Nobody lives there.

Background

The name means the mark. The skerry measures roughly 350 metres by 150 metres, about 3.3 hectares of mostly smooth diabase no more than 2 metres high, and twenty-three plant species have been recorded there. Post-glacial rebound is still lifting it, and it was probably under water before the 1500s. The nearest island lies more than 10 kilometres off, and the closest harbour, Berghamn in Eckerö, is 23 kilometres away. In 1873 alone, 23 ships trying to keep clear of the rock ran aground on the Swedish coast, and eight of them were wrecked. The 1885 lighthouse, a cylindrical tower on an octagonal base above a 2-storey keeper's house, is 14 metres high and was automated in 1979.

Source: Wikipedia, "Märket"

What to look for

• The zigzag border - an S-shaped line drawn to fix an 1885 building error.
• The lighthouse - the Russian-built tower now on the Finnish side.
• The bare skerry - around three hectares of rock with nothing else on it.
• The two countries - a border running through a single small rock.

When to go

June to August is the only realistic window and calm conditions are essential. Swell makes landing impossible most days. Trips are cancelled at short notice.

Before you go

Landing is genuinely difficult and possible only in flat calm; most attempts are called off. There is no scheduled service and trips must be arranged privately. There is nothing on the rock beyond the lighthouse.

Nearby

Eckerö is southeast, and the Swedish coast is west.