Suur Munamägi

Suur Munamägi is the roof of the Baltics, which in this part of the world means 318 metres. It is a rounded glacial hill in the Haanja uplands, entirely covered in forest, and without the tower on top you would walk over the summit without noticing you had arrived.

What you actually see

• The tower - a stone structure from the 1930s with a glass observation floor added later.
• The circle of view - forest, small lakes and low hills rolling away in every direction.
• The distance - on a clear day the view runs well into Latvia, with the neighbouring hill Vällamägi to the north.
• The hill itself - ordinary mixed forest with a paved path up, the interest being entirely from the top.

When to go

Late September to mid-October is when the whole visible landscape turns, and this is the one view in Estonia where autumn colour reads as a solid mass rather than a few trees. Winter gives snow on the forest and sharp long-distance visibility, with short days. Summer is green, hazy and the least distinct of the seasons from up there.

Honest expectations

It is a hill, not a mountain, and the sales line about the highest point in the Baltics does a lot of work. The reward is a genuinely wide forest panorama that you cannot get anywhere else in the country, not any sense of altitude.

The tower is the whole experience, so if it is closed - it has periods of maintenance - there is little reason to make the drive. Check before going.

Nearby

The Haanja uplands around it hold a cluster of small lakes and the deepest lake in Estonia, Rõuge Suurjärv, twenty minutes west. Võru and Lake Vagula are half an hour north.