Lying off Estonia’s southwestern coast, the mellow island of Kihnu, 7km long and 3.5km across, offers an unspoiled and easily-explored mixture of pine forest, juniper heath and grassland.

The island supported a population of 1200 until the end of World War II, when a third fled to the West, and the seafaring activities of those who remained were severely curtailed by the security-conscious Soviet occupiers. Nowadays around 600 souls remain; the older female residents are famous for still wearing the traditional brightly-coloured Kihnu costume.

The island is just about do-able as a day-trip from Pärnu, and is ideally suited to a day of hiking or cycling.

Linaküla

Kihnu’s main settlement of Linaküla huddles around a plain parish church that began as Lutheran when first built in the eighteenth century, but became Orthodox following the mass conversion of the islanders in 1858 - they switched faiths in order to take up an offer of free land. The church graveyard is the final resting place of Kihnu Jõnn, a much-travelled merchant seaman who came to symbolize the sea-roving lifestyle of the Kihnu male, for whom years of hard graft at sea - punctuated by intermittent bouts of drinking and fighting - was the norm.

A small museum opposite the church contains several sprightly canvases by self-taught local painter Jan Oad (1899-1984), whose pictures of pre-World War II fisherfolk are packed with vitality.

Practical Info

Ferries leave from the port of Munalaiu, 40km southwest of Pärnu.

Timetables and prices are available from the operator Veeteed