The Kärdla swimming beach

The Kärdla swimming beach is shallow and gently sloping, with a partially grassy beach but a sandy seabed. Where the water and land meet, there is a boulder – the protected Kärdla Erratic Boulder. Two lines, showing the dates 1893 and 1967, have been cut into the boulder. These lines indicate how high the water level rose in those years. In the southern part of the beach, there is a 4.3-hectare protected beach park. The local Swedes once had their chapel and cemetery there. A cast iron cross from 1848 in the middle of the park bears witness to the latter.

In the 19th century, after the broadcloth factory was founded, the area was redesigned. Baron Robert Eginhard von Ungern-Sternberg, who had been running the factory for long, had a free-form park created by the sea, as well as a combined pleasure ground and vegetable garden by his own house. The local people started calling the latter ‘the Baron’s Garden’. Altogether 34 tree and bush species, most of them local, have been counted in the park. Foreign species are represented by the larch, the eastern white pine, and several species of fir. Tall purple beeches grow on
the southwestern edge of the park.

You can swim on your own responsibility, as this is not a designated beach and therefore has no lifeguard services.