Survey of all Kirkkonummi Caves

Project! Having done the survey work last year for Korkberget, the massive cave (in Finnish class, at least), this fall I've been trying to visit other underground places in Kirkkonummi. And I have now visited and surveyed all nine known/reachable caves in Kirkkonummi. There's three more but they are either on military area, their location is not known, or they have collapsed. Also, there's a bit more work on documenting all side caves at Korkberget and Högberget.

As information sources I have used my own explorations, the books Suomen Luolat and Uudenmaat Luolat, Retkipaikka, and information available on the Internet. Two of the nine caves are new ones that I have found on other explorations. Although one was really too small to properly count as a cave.

These visits and maps have largely been done with Jarmo, and the map at Korkberget was worked on by me and Janne. And of course there's been plenty of other people on various trips. Thanks all!

Here are the caves and maps:

• Korkberget -- map and article
• Högberget -- map and article
• Gruvböleberget -- map and article
• Kasaberget -- map and article
• Majvik -- map and article
• Brännvinberget -- map and article
• Kakarberget -- map and article
• Vuorenmäki -- map and article
• Kalasberget -- map and article

Of course, given Kirkkonummi's rocky countryside and large area, there must be many more caves, at least small ones. Anybody care to give me pointers?

Some pictures, first from Högberget:

Gruvböleberget:

'

Kakarberget:

Korkberget:

Photos and maps (c) 2016-2017 by Jari Arkko, Janne Arkko, and Jarmo Ruuth. All rights reserved. This blog article is also available on the TGR site. And all skiing, caving, urban exploration, sauna, and other articles are available from the Planetskier.net site.

Viinakallio. The Booze Cliff cave.

Busy busy... more than half of my weekend goes to editing documents. But I decided I would too today go out, once I complete the doc. I should be able to still go out at 4pm, with sunset at 5.30pm. Except that by the time I'm hopping onto my car, I realise the daylight savings change is making the sunset at 4.30pm. Sigh. But no matter, I have a head lamp. Onwards!

I wanted to go visit the Viinakallio roof cave. Or Brännvinsberget in Swedish. Or the Booze Cliff in English. The story is that years ago, the locals would produce moonshine in the shelter of the forest and the cave.

By the time I'm reaching the cave's area, it is completely dark, and I'm having trouble finding anything from the coordinates. I keep walking along the cliff line and was just about to give up when a big red roof appears between the trees. I have found it.

It is an interesting place, roughly 4m x 4m, and also about 4m high. There is a nice crack cave in front of the roof cave as well, and along the cliff line there were also a few other small roof caves, but perhaps too small to call real caves. But I didn't have time to look at them in detail on this trip.

And now there's a map of this cave!

The high-res version of this map can be downloaded in JPG, PDF, or Apple Graphic formats. This is actually the last map of Kirkkonummi caves, except for three ones that are on military area, whose position is not known, or that have collapsed. And given Kirkkonummi's rocky countryside, there's likely also many unknown caves. But I have completed my mapping project of Kirkkonummi caves, for now, at least!

As I was returning back to the car in the Haapapuro/Kosko area, my headlamp was blazing at its boost setting. By the time I reach the car, a local man has noticed and has come up to investigate. He was wondering what the car parking at the intersection and the lights were about. I explained my cave mapping project, showed him pictures, showed the laser tools. It is important to keep the locals happy because hopefully others in the future will be able to drive and park and walk here as well. Most of the other small roads in the Veikkola area have been blocked off with locked gates. This man at least seems happy, had not known about the cave, and shared my hand at least fifteen times when I left :-)

The coordinates of the cave are N 60.25240969° E 24.48060409°.

More photos:

Crack cave:

Photos (c) 2017 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Sonnimäki and Kalasberget Bunkers

Another weekend, another set of bunkers. Today me, Jarmo, and Velma went to explore further bunkers in the Sonnimäki and Kalasberget area. We found two interesting bunkers.

The bunker at Sonnimäki was a second one, we had looked at an almost intact one earlier. But today's bunker was blown up and filled with rocks. However, there seemed to be a small hole to squeeze in through, which we did. Turned out that you could still move around in the bunker, visit the other rooms and the main entrance tunnel, even if its end was filled.

This bunker felt like visiting a previously unseen cave; the entrance was tight and messy enough that we're not sure other people have been here since 1956. There were no signs or garbage inside.

The day's second bunker was in the Kalasberget hill nearby. We crossed the field and found first pile of dirt, reportedly covering one bunker that is no longer accessible. A bit further into the forest, just at the bottom of a cliff was a quite remarkable bunker. The gun and structures under it have been ripped out, but the round hole to the bunker underneath still remains, the straight down entrance hole with ladders remains, and the walk-in corridor entrance still remains (even if tight at the end). Interesting!

Based on Google Maps satellite pictures, we were hoping to find a third bunker nearby, as the pictures showed what looked like an open hole in the ground. Once we reached the place, however, we realised it was merely a tree that had fallen a long time ago, and left a hole in the ground. Oh well, it was a nice walk in the forest.

On the trip we also found a small roof cave next to the cliff at Kalasberget. Probably too small to properly classify as a cave (5 meters long and barely enough of a roof to stay out of rain).

We also visited a bunker that Jarmo and I had been to before, but Velma hadn't. We confirmed the length of the long stalactite as being roughly 25 cm. And Jarmo took some more of his great pictures.

Coordinates for the Sonnimäki bunker are N 60.16220321° E 24.48039296°. The Kalasberget bunker is at N 60.16033893° E 24.46882004°. And the previously visited Sonnimäki bunker was at N 60.16092596° E 24.47613065°. As usual, we're searching bunkers based on the Lynx map, augmented by the Google Maps pictures and other additional documents referred to above.

Sonnimäki bunker:

Kalasberget bunker:

New pictures from the earlier Sonnimäki bunker:

Photos (c) 2017 by Jari Arkko and Jarmo Ruuth. All rights reserved.

Kalasberget Small Roof Cave

While searching for possible bunkers, we came across a tiny roof cave. Probably not enough to be classify as a cave, but now that I've seen it, I wanted to record its location.

The cave is about 4.5 meters long, and just about wide enough for someone to lie down under the roof and be protected from rain.

Map:

A higher resolution map can be found in PDF, JPG, and Apple Graphic formats.

Coordinates: N 60.16030955° E 24.46814904°.

Photos (c) 2017 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Vuorenmäen kulkurinluola, or the Mountain Hill's Nomad Cave

It is the usual story, a "Suomen Luolat" book tells that there's a cave at certain coordinates. But when we show up, our GPS and the coordinates don't quite match. And there are caves around, possibly several, although we're not quite sure which ones the book referred to.

So we kept walking around, and documenting what we found. Five small caves. A roof cave at the bottom of the cliff, which may have been what the book referred to. The location description matches, at the bottom, and a few meters across roof cave. Then there was a boulder cave under a couple of boulders on top of the cliff. And three more smaller ones.

The boulder cave was the most interesting! Over 7 meters long, and quite cave like. Although in my haste to find the "real cave" I didn't actually go through the first part of the cave. Oh well. Have to return some day.

We also drew a map:

There are also high-res versions in JPG, PDF, or Apple Graphic.

Coordinates for the different cave parts:

• Roof cave (Lippaluola): N 60.26903623 E 24.42989457
• Boulder cave (Lohkareluola): N 60.26887420 E 24.43058287
• Under a boulder cave (Kivenalusluola): N 60.26904660 E 24.43088155
• Fireplace cave (Nuotioluola): N 60.26949306 E 24.43031676
• Upper roof cave (Ylälippaluola): N 60.26941664 E 24.43011552

Photos from the roof cave:

Photos from the boulder cave:

Photos from the under-the-boulder cave:

Photos from the fireplace cave:

Photos from the upper roof cave:

Other photos, Finnish style burn-and-mark-everything damage in the hills:

Photos (c) 2017 by Jarmo Ruuth and Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Kakarberget Cave in the Darkness

Apparently, we like caving so much that we're willing to search forests in darkness, with headlamps, to look for caves.

This Sunday's evening expedition was to Veikkola, Kirkkonummi. We wanted to see three caves, but of course it is never easy to find and especially identify them. The book on Finnish caves had indicated that there'd be a cave on the Kakarberget canyon. We looked for it... and found three. The largest one is high and deep, but not very cave-like. There was also a small corner cave and a smaller roof cave with a much lower ceiling.

Nice place nevertheless, worth visiting. We also draw a basic map of the caves:

A high-res version of this map available in JPG, PDF, and Apple Graphic formats.

Coordinates, the big roof cave: N 60.24161613 E 24.49722240.

Coordinates, the small corner cave: N 60.24248172 E 24.49681784.

Coordinates, the low roof cave: N 60.24269593 E 24.49659159.

When approaching this cave, it is best to park in Laitamaa, and walk through the woods to the canyon area. There's also a very nice (and loud!) stream running nearby.

Pictures from the big roof cave:

Pictures from the corner cave:

Pictures from the low ceiling roof cave (the opening photo above was also from there):

Photos (c) 2017 by Jarmo Ruuth and Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.