Tallin - Viimsi and the islands Travel Guides | Tallin | Sub Regions | Viimsi and the islands

It’s worth heading to Viimsi, just beyond Pirita, for the continuing beauty of the coastal road and the dwindling silhouette of Tallinn, with smooth grey boulders scattered in the foreground. Viimsi is developing into a mini resort, with a growing number of hotels for those who prefer a bit of peace and quiet and also a couple of museums. Visit the old fishermen’s island of Aegna, favoured by party bureaucrats in the Soviet era, or you can visit the peaceful, unspoilt and more interesting Naissaar(’Women’s Island’). About an hour by ferry from the mainland, it is the most accessible of the Estonian islands. Its name dates from the 11th century, when it was reputedly the haunt of delectable damsels. Nowadays, you’ll find hardly any women – or men – there, just beautiful beaches and forests. Although it’s been a nature reserve since 1995, the island’s primary role for centuries was a military one and traces of the Tsarist and Soviet armies’ dubious legacy can still be seen.

Getting to Viimsi: bus 114 from Balti jaam.

Sights

Laidoneri Muuseum (General Laidoner’s State War Museum)

Mõisa tee 1, Viimsi, T 609 1443, http://www.laidoner.ee. Wed-Sat 1100-1700.

A museum devoted to Estonia’s super trooper. General Johan Laidoner, born in Viimsi in 1884, was commander-in-chief during the War of Independence, when the fledgling republic had to fend off the German Landeswehr and the Red Army; the Estonians were assisted by a British squadron, which succeeded in immobilizing the Bolshevik Navy. The museum is housed in the pink Viimsi manor, which Laidoner received in recognition of his wartime services; sadly, come the 2nd World War, he was deported to the Soviet Union in 1940 and died in prison in 1953. As a final insult, his home was used by the radio intelligence centre of the Soviet Navy.

Naissaar

The Monica ferry,T 052 55363, http://www.hot.ee/monicacruise: from Pirita, Sat and Sun 1100, 1630, Wed 1100, Fri 1630; from Naissaar, Sat and Sun 1230, 1800, Wed 1800. There are no boats in autumn or winter. The round trip costs 250 EEK, plus 60 EEK for a bike. Pick up an invaluable

Marked trails will take you to the main sights but the joy of this car-free island lies in what you’ll see while hiking or cycling along its paths and tracks: mushrooms the size of dinner plates; sea eagles soaring over pines; wild raspberries, blueberries and bilberries begging to be picked; acid-yellow butterflies and crickets hopping through the long grass. You can see Tallinn in the distance but this place is a world away. As it’s fairly small – 18.6 sq km – Naissaar is best done as a day trip, as ferries are infrequent and facilities are extremely basic, but overnight camping or guesthouse accommodation can be arranged.

Walks on Naissaar

There are three marked trails on Naissaar: the military trail, around the north of the island (red); the southern historical trail (blue); and the central nature trail (green). Each is about 10 km long. Try to visit the southwest coast as well, for a sense of utter solitude and for the mines at Mädasadam. At several points, you’ll cross a narrow-gauge railway, built by Tsarist troops in the run-up to the 1st World War.

The military trail takes in the octagonal lighthouse at Virby, almost at the tip of the island, and a Tsarist bunker and gun emplacement. The historical trail is the most interesting, leading you to the graves of British seamen involved in blockades of Tallinn during the Russian-Swedish War of 1808-09 and the Crimean War, a ramshackle but strangely moving wooden church, several secluded beaches, Peter the Great-era fortifications and the eerie mine-storage facility (see below). The nature trail’s highlights are the east coast’s rolling seafront dunes; a deciduous forest to which, according to legend, the king of Denmark exiled a wayward daughter; and the peat bogs of Kunila and Kullkrooni.

A word of warning: despite extensive de-mining operations in the late 1990s, there are still live explosives from military munitions dumps scattered through the forests. The island is perfectly safe, but watch your step off the trails, and don’t light a campfire outside a designated site.

Miinilaod

Covering 20 ha at the heart of Naissaar, this secret mine factory once supplied sea mines to the whole of the Soviet Union and was the main reason the island was off limits to civilians throughout the occupation. Today, you can wander the site at will: it’s an eerie, overgrown spot. When the Russians left they made the mines safe at Mädasadam, on the west coast, a bizarre spot where rusting canisters are piled up like boulders or stranded on the shoreline.

Aegna and Prangli islands

Smaller, but no less perfectly formed, are Aegna and Prangli islands. Aegna, a favourite of native Tallinners, has a nice sandy beach and is fun for mushrooming and berry-picking. Take your own refreshments. Boats leave from Pirita harbour and are fairly regular. Prangli’s main assets are its secluded bays and beaches. It’s reached from Leppneeme Harbour, T 609 1319, east of Tallinn: there are two ferries a day and less in winter. Take bus 11 from Tallinn’s Balti jaam.

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