Treriksröset

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Treriksröset (in Swedish), Treriksrøysa (Norwegian), Kolmen Valtakunnan Rajapyykki (Finnish) is the point at which the borders of Sweden, Norway and Finland meet. This tripoint is located approximately at 69°03′30″N, 20°33′0″E. The name can be translated as three-country cairn, and is named for the monument of stones erected in 1897 by the governments of Norway and Russia (administering Finland at the time). The Swedish could not agree on a boundary commission with the Norwegians and did not contribute their stone until 1901. It is Sweden's most northerly point (69° 4' N) and the westernmost point of the Finnish mainland.

Treriksröset [Photo: RP]
Treriksröset [Photo: RP]

The tripoint monument itself is a huge, yellow-painted dome-shaped stone made of concrete, located about ten metres out in Lake Goldajärvi (aka Koltajauri). The monument was built in 1926.

To get to the tripoint monument you can take a boat from the Finnish village of Kilpisjärvi to the Swedish village of Koltaluokta (8 kilometres). The boat takes you across Lake Kilpisjärvi in less than half an hour and operates three times daily from the middle of June until the middle of August. A Swedish hiking trail straddles the Swedish-Finnish border between Koltaluokta and the tripoint (3 kilometres).

Another way to get to the tripoint is to follow the Finnish hiking trail (11 kilometres) which starts from the E8 main road two kilometres north of the Kilpisjärvi village centre. The trail is clearly marked with 40-centimetre-high orange-topped posts and takes you through the beautiful Malla Nature Reserve, where open terrain intersperses with forests, rocky areas, streams and a waterfall, the Kitsiputous Falls. The hiking trail straddles the Finnish-Norwegian border for almost 2 kilometres before it reaches the tripoint monument.