Kökar

Kökar is a municipality in the archipelago of Åland. Kökar has a very suitable location for seafaring and the islands are full of prehistoric remnants. The Nordic pilgrimage route St. Olav Waterway (part of the Nidaros Path) goes through Kökar.

The nature here is unique. Most of the forests consist of leaved trees instead of pines, making the landscape very unusual in Finland. There are some rare plants living here, including the European yew.

Understand
Kökar is the southernmost municipality of Åland (and Finland), and having just some 224 permanent residents in 2021, it is the second least populated municipality in Finland. Most of the population live in the villages Finnö, Hamnö, Hellsö, Karlby, Österbygge, and Överboda on the main island. The village Kyrkogårdsö is located on island Kyrkögårdsö some 10 km north. The Otterböte site was already used by seal hunters 3000 years ago!

The name Kökar was first mentioned in a 13th-century Danish seafaring manuscript as Thiyckækarl, probably referring to a fat man. In the 15th century Franciscan monks arrived in Kökar and built a monastery on the small island Hamnö, making Kökar a cultural and spiritual centre. The exact date for this is not known, but a document from 1472 mentions Conuentu Tiokkarlensis. Even though the monastery came to its end in 1539, the church of Kökar has been on Hamnö since then.

Bogskär, the southernmost strips of dry land in Finland belong to Kökar and are 50 km south of the main island.

Nowadays Kökar is a living community, having a school for grades 1 to 9, library, bank, gym, and a health care station. The services are concentrated in the main village called Karlby. The private sector is dominated by tourism, shipping and farming.

Get in
The main connection to Kökar is the Ålandstrafiken ferries from Långnäs on Åland's mainland (a few times daily, via Sottunga) or from Galtby in Korpo (once to thrice a day in season, more or less daily off season). Galtby has a road connection to the Finnish mainland. The Ålandstrafiken ferries are free for pedestrians while quite costly for cars (€6/21/34/164 for bike/motorcycle/car/car+caravan in season). If you are travelling with a car you must book the ferry in advance.

The ferry trip to Kökar takes 2 hours and 45 minutes from Långnäs and 2 hours 30 minutes from Galtby. All ferries arrive to the Harparnäs ferry harbour. There is a summer café and dry toilets at the harbour.

By bus
Kökar is fairly easy to reach as there are several daily coaches from Turku bus station to Galtby ferry harbour (about €16), but the coaches often do not match the ferries. See Matkahuolto for details. The trip Turku–Galtby takes about 2 hours. For morning departures and evening arrivals you may have to stay the night in Korpo, possibly with a taxi ride to your accommodation.

On mainland Åland the bus line 5 from Mariehamn goes to the Långnäs harbour.

By boat
There are guest harbours at Hellsö village (Havspaviljongen), Brudhäll in the main village and Sandvik, with camping, cottages or hotel (see Sleep below for services not specific to boaters).

Get around
There is no public transport in Kökar but it's easy and very popular option to rent a bike. Kollektivtrafik from and to the ferry harbour operates Monday–Friday by timetable. It is free of charge on the main road and €2 outside it. The kollektivtrafik must be booked in advance.


 * Kökar taxi and kollektivtrafik:

During the season there are daily guided tours to Kallskär by Hotel Brudhäll.

Kyrkogårdsö is on the route of some of the ferries between Kökar and Sottunga but only by request, and if there is someone going there with a car. Otherwise pedestrians must use a passenger boat (passbåt) from Sottunga harbour. During the season the passenger boat operates by a timetable and must be invoked no later than 15 minutes before the ferry arrives to Sottunga and it leaves Sottunga harbour when all the passengers are on board. In the corresponding Ålandstrafiken's timetable ''avg. från X means 'the ferry leaves from X', ank. Sottunga means 'the ferry arrives to Sottunga', and passbåtens anlöp till Sottunga färjhamn'' is the deadline for invoking the passenger boat. Off-season the passenger boat operates only by request which must be done at least one day in advance. The passenger boat is free of charge. .

See


Kökar is one of the few islands in Åland with noticeable contours, showing picturesque cliffs to the east, now set a bit back from the coast. There is a very attractive little church on a separate island that is easily reached on foot from the ferry port by turning east. There are the ruins of an old monastery beside it. As is common in Åland, the bell tower is near to but separate from the main church building.


 * Källskär Kannan.jpg
 * Källskär Kannan.jpg
 * Källskär Kannan.jpg

Buy


There are small grocery stores in Sandvik guest marina and at Havspaviljongen as well.

Eat

 * Svartbröd, blackbread, as the name implies the bread is almost black. It is round and quite flat but its most characteristic feature is the taste. The blackbread from Kökar is sweeter than the blackbread from the other parts of Åland. Only a few people still know how to bake the Kökar-blackbread, so you have to ask around where you can buy the bread.
 * Skärgårdsbröd Kökar is a local bakery. It runs a café in Karlby.

Drink

 * Peders Aplagård Österbygge is an apple farm. They make different products out of apples like cider, cake, juice and jelly. You can buy directly from the farm or from the food shops on the island. Try Koppskärs dricka - their malty juniper berry lemonade.

Connect

 * Kökar municipality
 * Visit Åland, Åland official tourist gateway

Go next

 * The rest of Åland
 * The Archipelago Sea to the east, perhaps along the Archipelago Trail