This is one of the more unusual lighthouses of the week I've done. OK, yes, I had a lighthouse with a crab climbing on it, and a lighthouse that looked like a baseball and a bat, and a lighthouse that was distinctly phallic (and I think all of them were in South Korea). But while I've featured lighthouses of unusual design, and many different classic designs, and many in striking, very picturesque settings, I've never featured a particularly ugly lighthouse.
This may be the first one.
This is also an unusual lighthouse for a different reason. It's on an island shared by two different countries -- Finland and Sweden. And it was built by Russia.
Here's more about the island. The unusual border of Märket Island
The summary is that the Russians built the lighthouse (in 1885) on the Swedish side of the island by accident (but in their defense, it was on the highest point on the little rock). So the border on the island is drawn now such that the lighthouse is on the Finnish side.
If you want to read more about all that, I recommend the Lighthouse Directory's summary, which is on this page: Lighthouses of the Åland Islands (scroll down)
Here are some extracted specs:
"Active; focal plane 17 m (56 ft); white flash every 5 s. 14 m (46 ft) octagonal cylindrical stone tower with lantern and gallery, rising from a 2-story stone keeper's house. Entire structure painted with red and white horizontal bands."Oh, where is it? Here - but you'll have to zoom in further to actually see it.
Now, as for how it looks. Like I said, it doesn't look that great, partly because the site is cluttered with other buildings. The island itself is pretty wild and rocky and isolated.
So ... judge for yourself. The pictures:
So -- agreed? An ugly lighthouse? But still, the location is impressive (and it's a long way from anywhere).
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