First published: 27/07/13.

Els Slots 2.0

Struve Geodetic Arc

Struve Geodetic Arc (Inscribed)

Struve Geodetic Arc by Els Slots

I am happy to finally be able to tick off this weird WHS, and present to you a trip report to another one of the measure points. I choose “Oravivuori”, located on the top of a hill some 30km south of Jyväskylä in Central Finland. A GPS or car navigation will steer you close using the provided coordinates. The site is also signposted well from the main road between Tampere and Jyväskylä, and you should follow these signs to reach the improvised parking lot at the foot of the hill. It’s better to turn off the car navigation for the final stretch, as at least my TomTom wanted to take me on a different (unpaved) route.

The site lies 8 km from the main highway. The road is mostly half-paved and unpaved for the last km. Access is not maintained in winter, and I also wouldn’t advise a visit during or just after heavy rains. From the car park, a path leads uphill for one km to the top, where the measuring point is and also an observation tower. “One km” doesn’t sound far, but it is a steep climb on a narrow path. There are information boards at the start and along the way, as well as wooden benches to sit on every 250m. It surprised me how well-looked after it all is, as it isn’t a site where the casual tourist would show up.

There’s an open area at the top of the hill, just enough forest is cleared to hold a stone marker and a large wooden observation tower. I am not really sure which one of the two marks the exact “Struve spot” however. At the foot of the observation tower, I wrote my name in the provided logbook. It seems that there are some 6 to 8 visitors to this site daily in summer. Of course, I went up to the top of the tower too – it has good views over the quintessential Finnish landscape of thick forest dotted with lakes.

My 2nd Struve site I visited during the WH meeting of 2016 in Lithuania. It's location #023, Meskonys. This one can be found in a field some 200m from the main road and is signposted. There's nothing more to see than a manhole cover-like object, surrounded by a small white fence. There's an information panel about the Struve sites on your walk to the field.

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