Åland, also called the Åland Islands, is an archipelago lying off the southwestern corner of Finland and stretching across the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia from the Baltic Sea. There is one large island, Fasta Åland, about 80 smaller inhabited islands, and more than 6000 islets and skerries. The great majority of the residents (more than 90%) are Swedish by language and heritage. In fact the islands were part of Sweden until 1809, when Sweden was forced to cede them to the Russian Empire along with Finland. When Finland became independent from Russia in 1917 the Ålanders petitioned to secede from Finland. Finland declined and ultimately the Åland question was referred to the League of Nations. In 1921 the League decided that Åland should remain under Finnish sovereignty, but that the islands should be autonomous, self-governing, and demilitarized. Åland has its own parliament and national flag, issues its own postage stamps, and has a distinct ISO country code (ALA) and Internet top-level domain (.ax). However, from the Finnish perspective Åland is an autonomous province of Finland governed under international treaties by a special Act of Autonomy. The Finnish name for Åland is Ahvenanmaa. Åland is divided into 16 townships (kommuner) and in this list the lights are grouped by township. The Finnish word for a lighthouse is majakka (plural majakat); saari is an island, luoto is an islet or skerry, niemi is a cape or headland, niemimaa is a peninsula, lahti is a bay, salmi is a strait, joki is a river, and satama is a port or harbor. The Swedish word is fyr (plural fyrar); ö is an island, holme is an islet, skär is a skerry (a tiny island or rocky reef), sund is a strait (often between an island and the mainland), vik is a bay, hav is a sea, udde is a headland, and hamn is a harbor. Since Swedish is the language of the islands the names of the lighthouses are generally in that language. Lighthouses in Åland, as in all of Finland, are maintained by the Waterways Section of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (Liikennevirasto). Special thanks to Michel Forand, who researched these lighthouses extensively and provided data from the Admiralty list. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. SU numbers are from the official Finnish light list. Admiralty numbers are from volume C of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 116, but for some reason very few of the Åland lighthouses are listed in the NGA Light List.
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Southern Åland Lighthouses
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![]() Bogskär Light, Baltic Sea, January 2015 Swedish Lighthouse Society Creative Commons photo by Ted Rapp |
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Fasta Åland Area Lighthouses
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![]() Rågrund Light, Lemland, June 2013 Wikimedia Creative Commons photo by Johan Fredriksson |
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Northwestern Åland Lighthouses
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Northeastern Åland Lighthouses
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Satakunta | East: Southwest Finland | West: Southern Bothnia
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Posted October 1, 2007. Checked and revised November 5, 2024. Lighthouses: 53. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.