Pakri Cliffs and Lighthouse
A long stretch of coastal klint on the Paldiski peninsula with a tall lighthouse on the edge - and a Soviet military past still visible in the ground.
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
Bare grassy clifftop with an exposed limestone face below and boulders in the shallows, the lighthouse rising from the edge, and the sea running out towards the Pakri islands. It is windier and more open than the wooded klint further east, which makes the scale easier to read.
Concrete bunkers, gun positions and abandoned military ground sit inland from the cliff, unrestored and unlabelled.
When to go
- May to September - the lighthouse is open to climb and the walking is easy.
- Autumn - big weather on an exposed coast.
- Winter - 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.
Opening times, ticket prices and seasonal closures change - check the official source before you go: official site.