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

From the tower - a stone structure from the 1930s with a glass observation floor added later - you get an uninterrupted circle of forest, small lakes and low hills rolling away in every direction. On a clear day the view runs well into Latvia, and the neighbouring hill Vällamägi is visible to the north.

At ground level the hill is ordinary mixed forest with a paved path up. The interest is entirely from the top.

When to go

• Late September to mid-October - 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 - snow on the forest, sharp long-distance visibility, short days.
• Summer - 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.