11 erratic boulders in Finland on the map – Kummakivi, Ilveskivi, Lentokivi

You can tell an erratic boulder by the fact that it is in the wrong place: a different rock type from the bedrock beneath it, standing alone on a sandy heath, or balancing on a rock so precariously it seems it should not stay. It all comes down to the same cause. The ice sheet tore the stone loose, carried it and set it down when the ice melted about 10,000 years ago.

The stones on this list were chosen for having something more than size: a story, protected status, a crown carved as a border mark, or a blacksmith's flight. The order is not a ranking. Each place page has a map, directions and nearby sights – and the whole theme, 50 stones, has a page of its own.

Kummakivi

Ruokolahti

A seven-metre boulder rests on a domed rock on such a small point of contact that people travelled from Russia to marvel at it in the 1800s. It does not rock: the stone settled onto its base from slowly melting ice, and there it has stayed.
Place page and directions →
Lostenen

Pedersören kunta

A 16-metre stone in Yli-Purmo, Pedersöre, is among the largest in Finland. People have danced on its top and sheltered beneath it in wartime, and wooden steps lead to the summit from which, legend says, you can see seven church towers.
Place page and directions →
Rillankivi

Pyhäjärvi

A boundary marker for three regions and three municipalities, carved with the Swedish crown and an Orthodox cross probably in the 1500s. Protected by the Finnish Heritage Agency and still a valid border – the oldest of its kind in Finland.
Place page and directions →
Ollinkivi

Ruovesi

The stone on Siikaneva mire in Ruovesi was the first site in Finland protected under the Nature Conservation Act, in 1924. In a tale by Topelius the stone rolls onto anyone who passes with bad thoughts – the road once ran right beside it.
Place page and directions →
Isokivi

Muhos

The largest erratic in Rokua Geopark, at Kankari in Muhos, originally weighed over 500 tonnes and split as it came to rest. The rock is 1,800-million-year-old pegmatite; an accessible 200-metre path leads to it.
Place page and directions →
Lentokivi

Polvijärvi

At Midsummer 1871 the blacksmith Adam Wallius launched himself from this four-metre stone at Lehtovaara in Polvijärvi in a machine of his own making and flew more than a hundred metres. He fell into the scrub, was injured and never tried again – but the stone got its name and a memorial plaque.
Place page and directions →
Fleminginkivi

Raasepori

According to tradition, Governor Klaus Fleming was taken ill beside this stone on his way from Vyborg to Turku and died in a nearby house on 13 April 1597. The boulder stands in Raasepori on the old Turku–Vyborg road.
Place page and directions →
Satulinkivi

Jokioinen

Satulinkivi in Jokioinen is a border stone for three municipalities and two regions, where three roads meet. It was already protected as an ancient monument before it gained natural monument status in 1963 – also known as Vahankivi.
Place page and directions →
Pallivahankivi

Turku

In Pallivaha, Turku, a giant boulder rises between apartment blocks – the city's best-known erratic. The district grew up around it, and the stone remains a landmark between the yards.
Place page and directions →
Silkkikivi

Paimio

Beside Vistantie in Paimio village stands a boulder behind which, so the story goes, churchgoers changed from everyday clothes into their Sunday silks. The stone was protected in 1962, and the story is now on a plaque fixed to it.
Place page and directions →
Wiltsunkivi

Kaarina

On top of Wiltsunkivi in Kaarina are ten Iron Age cup marks, and in its side a half-metre drill hole: someone tried to split the stone, and someone else protected it in time. Today it is a nationally significant archaeological site.
Place page and directions →