Lammassaari

This guide to Lammassaari in Helsinki starts with factory workers rowing out to the marshy island in the 1890s, and the sheep that gave it its name yet no longer live there year-round. It follows a temperance society that built a log cabin here in the early 1900s, treating it almost like a shrine to sober living, and the colony of summer cottages that grew up around it. You'll hear how the bay became a protected nature reserve in 1962 and why sheep were eventually brought back, not for wool. Listen for the creak of the boardwalk underfoot as you walk out toward the bird tower.