Move in nature

This unusual name marks the location of a unique headland. You know you are close to the destination if you see the statue of Leigri, a hero of Hiiu County.
The esker runs from north-east to south-west. Its higher parts are covered with vegetation but become a beach full of pebbles. Unique trees and shrubs grow here: honeysuckle, alder buckthorn, buckthorn, and snowball tree. There is an abundance of sea kale on the shores, which make the beach an amazing sight during the flowering period. Not to mention the marvellous brier flowers. Kassari is a popular place for summer holidays: for example, the writer Aino Kallas and the linguist-diplomat Oskar Kallas have stayed here.

Welcome to the northmost lavender field in the world!
The Lavender Farm is located on a rocky and sunny slope, on the edge of the Kärdla meteorite crater. Our 20,000 lavender plants grow in an area of almost 1 hectare and blossom from late June to early August. We make exciting products from lavender, such as lavender jam, lavender spice and lavender micellar water. During blossoming, there are 100,000 helpers at the edge of the field, who diligently harvest lavender honey.We look forward to seeing you at the Open Farm Day, Harvest Party and Conservation Holiday. At other times or with a bigger group, visits can be booked individually.

The City Park takes up 5.2 ha. The first part of the park was established in the 1860s after the church was finished in a place called Kirikupõllu (Church field). A more thorough tree planting took place in the beginning of the 20th century. The youngest part of the park was planted in the 1970s. Kärdla song festival grounds are located in the City Park. The first song festival in Hiiumaa took place in 1867 in Leigri village in the yard of Murru pub. There is evidence of a children’s party in Lepakopil in Kärdla already from 1874. In 1926 the first national song festival was held in Kärdla. This was conducted by Tuudur Vettik, a composer, choral conductor and music teacher who later became one of the leaders of the Estonian national song festivals.

About 455 million years ago, a meteorite crater about 4 kilometers in diameter formed in shallow seawater on the other side of the equator. After many geological processes such as the formation of sediments, the movement of the earth’s crust and several ice ages, the crater is difficult to see in nature today.

In order to get a better overview of the special natural monument, a model field of the crater has been built, which gives a spatially perceptible picture of the size and proportions of the Kärdla crater. The model field has a hundredfold reduction compared to the actual size of the crater, its diameter is about 43 meters and the length of the circle is 140 meters.

The largest area of loose sand in Estonia is located on Hiiumaa!
If you think you have already seen everything Hiiumaa has to offer, we invite you to discover something completely different! In the Pihla-Kaibaldi Nature Reserve, in the middle of a beautiful pine forest, there is a crescent-shaped field with loose sand. The nearly 12-hectare area was formed during World War II as a result of forest fires and the subsequent use as a training ground for tanks.
The sandy forest trails, unique heath pines, and white lichen there invite you to a short hike.Good to know: the Pihtla-Kaibaldi Nature Reserve was established in 1998 to preserve this unique natural community and the largest area of loose sand in Estonia, which was created partly due to human activities.

Kallaste cliff is a limestone outcrop, about 400 metres long and up to 10 metres tall.
There is an old pine forest on the cliff, through which you can walk along the terrace. In the southern part of the cliff, there is a biohermal reef, formed from coral and other marine invertebrates. It is one of the most representative of its kind in Estonia. Several rare species of fern and flowering plants grow in the cliff’s fissures.
According to legend, Vanapagan used to make weapons inside the Kallaste cliff for the locals during the ancient war for freedom.
 

Heilu rocks were first described and characterised by the Russian geologist Gregor Helmersen in 1871 and 1879. His name is also connected to rocks elsewhere in Estonia.
With over 80 rocks on the 0.5 hectare plot, carried to their location by glacial ice, geologist Gregor Helmersen described the Helmersen rock field as the most magnificent group of boulders originating from Finland that he had ever seen in the Baltic countries.

Ristna Visitor Centre, which forms the centre of Hiiumaa Recreation Area, administered by the State Forest Management Centre (RMK), is in the village of Kalana, just off the Kõpu–Ristna road. It provides information about all leisure options offered by the RMK on the beach and in the forest in the Hiiumaa Recreation Area.
A photo exhibition showcasing the diverse nature of Kõpu Peninsula is open all year round. We offer nature study programmes and organise events with a forest and nature theme. Ristna Nature Centre can also be rented as a venue for nature-themed events.
A ‘sea supermarket’ is also open. You will have to come and see for yourself what is sold there.

Alvars can be best described as thin-soiled meadows rich in lime where there are almost no trees or bushes. Alvars can have up to 20 centimetres of soil but at times there is no soil at all and vegetation in these cases can be found only in cracks of the cliffs or smaller concavities. In different seasons the same alvar can look very different, depending on the amount of precipitation. On Sarve peninsula you can see alvars in gravel-pebble beach ridge by the sea. These alvars are different in comparison with those in North-Estonia or other alvars in West-Estonia.

Kurisu sinkhole is located near Kurisu village.
The upper part of the sinkhole has a diameter of about 32 metres, in the lower part it narrows down to 12 metres, and it is 6.2 metres deep. In here, the creek coming from Pihla wetland disappears under the ground.
In summer, when the weather is dry, you can see a limestone bedrock and a little opening to a cave at the bottom of the sinkhole. During high water in spring, so much surface water gathers here that the crater is filled with it and some of it spills over to the surroundings so that the whole place is reminiscent of a little lake.

The water that disappears into the sinkhole re-surfaces on the ground 3 km away on an old pasture in Pihla village.

The slanted limestone layers of the meteor crater near Kärdla, Hiiu County put pressure on groundwater. The water bursts out of the ground in an uninterrupted stream through pipes placed 10–15 metres under the ground’s surface.
There are especially many artesian wells on Tiigi and Aia streets and people can also drink crystal-clear water from the well on the corner of Aia and Pikk streets. You will see many fountains in the yards when walking down Aia Street – these are all artesian.
They look especially beautiful in winter when ice sculptures form on the fountains.
 

The study bed provides an excellent possibility for examining domestic orchids within a short period of time and without any guides. There are 10 species of orchids growing naturally on the study bed. The best time to see blooming species of orchids is around Midsummer’s Day. However, some species bloom also in July and August.
The study bed is located next to the car park. Boardwalk, time of completion 15 minutes. There are colourful information boards on the study bed.

Luidja alder forest may seem like an average black alder forest to everyday passers-by as you can find these trees elsewhere in Hiiumaa marshes and stream banks. But in fact this is an area which has more than a hundred year history in experimenting with fixating unique dunes. The alder forest was first established due to the need to protect the beach road of Luidja and the nearby fields and meadows from blowing sands. The alder forest was established by Karl Friedrich Vilhelm Ahrens (1855-1938) who was born in Germany in Meclenburg-Schwerin. He studied forestry in Rostock and Greifsvald. Ahrens established the alder forest in order to fixate the sand dunes in 1901-1903.