There are many caves called "Devil's Nest" in Finland. I guess a remnant of pagan beliefs of odd places or just a joke. This particular Devil's Nest is in Janakkala, and called the Poppy Castle. It is a bit unclear if there's human construction in some of the rock arrangements on this steep hill surrounded by cliffs, but the cave itself is definitely natural.
You'll have to get here by coordinates, there are no signs or even clear paths. The coordinates are N 60.85645 E 24.54095. A small road called Rehakantie goes just 100 meters away, and the highway isn't that far either, so if you're driving along the highway E12 north of Helsinki it is easy to stop. There's a couple of forestry roads starting from Rehakantie, parking on those is easy.
On the site there's indeed a steep hill. Worth visiting, but the cave itself is on the east side, and isn't easily accessible from the top. You would see the rectangular top entrance of the cave, however, not sure if it is possible to climb down or if there's a path to the lower cave from that entrance. But if you go on the east side of the hill you will spot some massive pieces of rock cracked away from the main cliff. The cave is on the south side of that.
I was in my business clothes, returning from a trip so I didn't crawl too far, but did squeeze in the cave's main hall. If I had climbed up a bit I could have continued in some further cracks, maybe also (doubtful) up to the top. I think I read somewhere that the cave would be 10 meters long. It is possible. A remarkable place nevertheless.
In addition to the narrow crack cave, there's a shelter/roof cave on the north side of the massive piece of rock.
More information can be found from the book of Finnish caves (Suomen Luolat) or in this Retkipaikka article.
According to google the "Poppy castle" is on the west side of the hill; it also has a cliff, but I did not have time to check that side out. There may be more interesting things on the other side, or perhaps the coordinates in Google are wrong. The coordinates I have above and where I visited is the same place that the Retkipaikka article talks about, though.
Photos of the cave:
The cliff:
Shelter/roof cave:
Photos from the hill:
This article has also been published at Planetcaver.net here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.
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