Rannametsa-Tolkuse Dunes

These dunes were the shoreline of the Baltic several thousand years ago. The sea has since retreated, the sand has been fixed by pine forest, and the ridge now sits inland with bog on one side of it. Tornimägi, the high point, reaches around thirty-four metres, which makes it the tallest dune in the country.

What you actually see

• The boardwalk - leaving the road and crossing open raised bog with its pools and stunted pines.
• The dune ridge - a wooded rise the path climbs onto, marking where the old coastline ran.
• The observation tower - bog on one side, forest running out towards the sea on the other.
• The contrast - wet sphagnum bog to dry sandy pine forest within a kilometre.

When to go

August to September brings cranberries and cloudberries in the bog and the best colour. May to June has fresh green, long light and the bog cotton in flower. Winter leaves the boardwalk walkable and the bog at its starkest. Early morning is when photographers come, for the mist over the bog.

Honest expectations

It is a short, easy, flat walk with one climb, and it takes under two hours. Treat it as a stop on the way south from Pärnu rather than a day out.

The boardwalk over the bog is slippery when wet or frosted, and there are no railings on much of it.

Nearby

Pärnu and its beach are half an hour north. Soomaa National Park is a similar distance inland to the east.