Kuhmo Lakeside trail 4.8 km, Kuhmo

You can reserve about two hours for the trip, but many stops along the route can easily stretch your travel time.

The route can be walked in both directions.

DESTINATIONS AND ROUTE INFORMATION OF THE KUHMO LAKESIDE TRAIL CULTURAL PROMENADE 

Kuhmo Lakeside trail begins and ends at the main door of Kuhmo House.

a) Kuhmo House - Kuhmo Arts Centre

The Kuhmo Arts Centre was completed in the summer of 1993 as the home of Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival.

In addition to the concert halls and classrooms, the lobby has various exhibitions throughout the year. You should step inside and ask if you can peek into the big hall. In the summer, the Juttu Café www.juttuakahvila.fi hosts free coffee concerts by young summer musicians from Kuhmo. The house's events can be found at www.kuhmotalo.fi .

The most significant international event of the centre is the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, which is always held for a couple of weeks in the middle of July www.kuhmofestival.fi 

b) Veteran statue

There is a Veteran Statue in the front yard of Kuhmo House under the pines. The statue, unveiled in 1994, was designed by Juhani Vepsäläinen. The place is the same where the soldiers gathered who left to fight the Winter War (1939-1940) .

• The route starts in front of Kuhmo House towards the shore of Lake Lammasjärvi.

c) Kontio school

There are two Kontio school buildings. The old tall white building was built in 1950 with a newer red brick building behind it. Both buildings are now empty, as the basic education has been transferred to Tuupala Primary school - a building fully made of wood. The school and the street in front of it are named after their first teacher, Pekka Kontio.

d) Lake Lammasjärvi

The city center of Kuhmo is on the shores of Lake Lammasjärvi and this cultural promenade runs halfway along the shores of the lake. 12% of Kuhmo's surface area is water. Lammasjärvi is the third largest lake in Kuhmo.

• On the beach path, turn left and follow the gravel road that leads along the lake shore.

e) Province beach and Tervansoutaja statue

The province beach, the Hamina of Tar Rowers - there are many names for a beloved child. Black gold, tar, was rowed from Kuhmo at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries to Oulu, where it was further sold to English and Spanish shipyards for tarring ships and ropes as a preservative and impregnating agent. Kuhmo was once the largest tar producer in the world, in its best years more than 15,000 barrels of tar were sold!

There is a tar rower statue at the shore designed by Risto Saalast.

• Walk from the statue through the parking lot towards the parish house.

f) Parish Center and Health Center

The premises of the parish, which was completed in 1966, include e.g. the pastor's office, the parish offices, and the parish hall.

Kuhmo Health Center provides basic health care services - several doctors and dentists work there.

g) Kuhmo Church

In the churchyard there is a monument to those who fell in the War of Independence in 1918.

• After the health station, the route turns left onto a gravel road towards the rapids. On the shore there is the pier of the Pajakkakoski backwater, where you can have a break and even take a dip to swim (watch out for the rapids' currents). In the rapids of Pajakkakoski you can also try river floating (EräPiira) www.erapiira.fi
• Just continue walking on the sand path towards the library.

h) Kuhmo Library and the Tower of Babel

In the park in front of the library you will find the Tower of Babel, a work of art by the visual artist Kari Cavén in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival. It is made of recycled material, in thsi case the old orange plastic chairs from Kontio school.

The library accommodates Kuhmo tourist information. Toilets can be found immediately behind the front door on the left.

• The route continues along the shore on the gravel road.

i) The Room of Light

Between the library and the shore you will see Irma Laukkanen's Sculpture of Light from 1992.

• The route continues after crossing the car road on the right side of Pajakkakoski bridge. After the bridge, turn left down to the beach path. The walking route runs downstream and upstream of Pajakkakoski on the beach paths. On the downstream side, the route first runs along a path in the forest and then turns back towards the bridge on duckboards. At the shore you can also find a shelter and benches for a break.

j) Pajakkakoski rapids and Möljä

Pajakkakoski is 450 meters long and 2.4 m high, making it a popular sport fishing spot. "Möljä" is a shoreline structure made of stone and wood, on which duckboards run. 

• The route returns to the bridge and continues below it to the start of the rapids. In the area of ​​the old Ikola vicarage you will find a pier and a small forest nature path. The path is not signposted, but easily to follow in the parklike forest area of the vicarage. 
• The route returns along the duckboards and stairs back to the bridge. After the bridge, on the right, there is an old larch alley.

k) Tuupala Museum

• You can pop into the museum or continue the route straight ahead.

l) Tuupala Primary School and Kindergarten

Kuhmo's newest pride in wood construction is Tuupala Primary School and Kindergarten, which has been awarded in many ways. The building was completed in the spring of 2018. Next to the new building is Tuupala High School, built in the 1950s.

• Opposite the schools, the route crosses the street and continues anlong Kontionkatu Street. The street can be called the cultural street of Kuhmo. Along it you find the Chamber Music Center, the Kalevala Center Juminkeko and the Kuhmo Arts Centre.

m) Chamber Music Center

The Chamber Music Center is the entertainment center for Kuhmo Chamber Music guests. In the white main building there is café Amati located, in the red barn the restaurant Salakamari, in the building opposite the barn there are another restaurant and theater facilities and the small sauna building accommodates the restaurant Piharavintola. The white building behind the barn is the Gallery with exhibition spaces. These facilities are only available during the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival. During the reast of the year, the facilities are used as workspaces and warehouses of the Kuhmo Chamber Music Support Association. https://kuhmofestival.fi/english  

n) Juminkeko, Arhipa stone and Ruoto

“Go around the day, go around the moon, but don’t go around Juminkeko” is said in folk poetry. What this utterance means is almost as mystical as the sampo interpretation of the Kalevala epic. Step inside the Kalevala Center in Juminkeko and find out!

The building was completed in 1999. It was designed by internationally renowned Finnish architects Mikko Heikkinen and Markku Heikkinen. The old wooden house on the site has been "recycled" in the Juminkeo building. Old structures have been utilized in the new building. http://www.juminkeko.fi/en/index.asp 

In the courtyard of Juminkeo there is a sculpture by sculptor Martti Aiha, Arhipa stone. It is dedicated to the singers of the Kalevala. The monument was erected by the Kalevala Society and the Karelian Society of Civilization in 1999.

In the backyard there is the sculpture Ruoto (fishbone) from 2000 by the artmaker Antti Nieminen.

• At Juminkeo, turn right and then left onto the main street, Kainuuntie. Almost all of Kuhmo's services are along two downtown roads. One is this Kainuuntie, the other Koulukatu.

Cafés and restaurants:

• Kaesan Kotileipomo (bakery) www.kaesankotileipomo.fi 
• Hotel Kainuu www.hotellikainuu.fi 
• Eskobar www.eskobar.fi 
• Neljä Kaesaa www.neljakaesaa.fi 

o) Market place

Kuhmo Market place is busiest in summer. The square features a statue made by the artist Risto Saalast in 1979 with the title Laukunkantaja (case carrier). In refers to the bag and case business with Karelia during the 1800-1900.

• After passing the City Hall cross Kainuu road (Kainuuntie) and walk on the left side of the street until the cemetery area opens up. The route continues through the cemetery to the shore of Lake Lammasjärvi, where you exit through the back gate.

p) Hankaniemi Cemetery

Hankaniemi Cemetery or the Old Cemetery was opened in 1816. Its oldest known tomb is from the 1860s. The cemetery has many graves of former celebrities - priests, merchants, teachers and officials. There are also several monuments of local historical significance: the Monument to the Heroes, the Monument to the Deads from Starvation, the Monument to the Refugees of Karelia who died in the 1920s and 1930s, the Monument to the Victims of the 1877 Lentua Boat Accident and the Tomb of Renne Haverinen.

• On the shores of Lake Lammasjärvi, the route continues to the left, back towards the center. The start and end point of the route, Kuhmo House, can be seen behind Ruukinranta beach. Ruukinranta beach is Kuhmo's most popular swimming beach.