Rummu Quarry

Rummu was a limestone quarry worked by prisoners from the adjacent Soviet-era prison. When the pumps were switched off after 1991 the groundwater came back and filled the pit, drowning the workings where they stood. What is left is a lake of startling turquoise with machinery, roads and buildings still underwater, and a bright white mountain of quarry spoil on the bank.

What you actually see

• The water - pale green over the shallow ledges, deep blue in the pit, and clear enough on a calm day to see several metres down.
• The submerged buildings - structures whose tops break the surface, with divers going down to the rest.
• The spoil heap - a pale grey-white hill of crushed limestone, high enough for a full view over the quarry and the flat country beyond.
• The old prison buildings - standing at the edge of the site.

When to go

June to August has the water at its most vivid and the site fully open. May and September bring fewer people and water too cold for most. In winter the contrast between the white heap and the ice is striking, though the site may be closed.

Honest expectations

This is now a managed and ticketed recreation area with wakeboarding, diving and a beach - it is no longer the abandoned ruin that made the early photographs. Anyone expecting free access to an empty industrial site will find a gate and a price list.

The water is deep, cold and full of submerged hazards. Swimming outside the marked area and climbing on the ruins have both caused serious accidents here.

Nearby

Keila-Joa waterfall and the manor park are about half an hour north. Tallinn is under an hour east.