Pakri Cliffs and Lighthouse

The Pakri peninsula ends in a klint face around twenty-four metres high, running for several kilometres along the coast. The lighthouse standing near the edge is one of the tallest in Estonia at fifty-two metres, and the ground behind it is scattered with the remains of the Soviet naval base that closed Paldiski to outsiders until 1994.

What you actually see

• The clifftop - bare grass running to an open edge, windier than the wooded klint further east.
• The rock face - exposed limestone with boulders in the shallows below.
• The lighthouse - rising straight from the edge, with the sea running out towards the Pakri islands.
• The abandoned ground inland - concrete bunkers and gun positions, unrestored and unlabelled.

When to go

May to September the lighthouse is open to climb and the walking is easy. Autumn brings big weather to an exposed coast. Winter puts ice on the boulders below and a bitter wind off the water.

Honest expectations

Paldiski is not a pretty town. It was a closed military base for fifty years and looks it, which surprises people expecting a seaside resort - the appeal is the coast and the strangeness of the setting.

The cliff edge is unfenced and undercut in places, and the military ruins are genuinely derelict with open shafts and rusted steel.

Nearby

Türisalu cliff and Keila-Joa are half an hour east. Ferries to the Pakri islands run from Paldiski in season.