Lapland & the North

The Sámi are the original people of the north, herding and hunting across the region long before borders. Finnish settlers moved up the rivers from the Middle Ages, founding farms and trading posts, and Swedish kings taxed the region's furs and fish. Oulu was founded in 1605 and grew rich in the 18th and 19th centuries on tar exported from Kainuu's forests down the Oulujoki river. In Kajaani, the Swedish crown built a castle on a river island in the early 17th century; the doctor Elias Lönnrot, who later compiled the Kalevala, worked there from 1833.

In the 19th century the preacher Lars Levi Laestadius began a revival movement among the Sámi and Finns of the north, and Laestadianism remains strong in the region today. Independent Finland gained the Arctic port of Petsamo in 1920, but lost it to the USSR in 1944, and its Skolt Sámi were resettled around Lake Inari.

The Second World War shaped the north. In the Winter War of 1939–40, Finnish troops destroyed Soviet columns near Suomussalmi in Kainuu, including on the Raate road. After Finland made peace with the Soviets in 1944, the Lapland War drove out German forces, who burned much of Lapland as they withdrew; around 90 percent of Rovaniemi was destroyed. Reconstruction brought a new Rovaniemi planned by Alvar Aalto, hydro-power dams on the Kemijoki, and, later, tourism built on Christmas and the snow.

Lapland contains the Sámi homeland in Finland: the municipalities of Inari, Utsjoki and Enontekiö and northern Sodankylä. Three Sámi languages are spoken — Northern, Inari and Skolt Sámi — and Inari municipality is the only one in Finland with four official languages. The Sámi Parliament meets in Inari. Sámi dress (gákti), duodji handicrafts and the chanted song known as joik are living traditions, and tourist businesses have been criticised for turning Sámi culture into a marketing tool with staged ceremonies.

Reindeer herding is not only Sámi: across Lapland and parts of North Ostrobothnia and Kainuu, Finnish herders also keep reindeer in herding districts, and the autumn round-ups are key events. Laestadianism, with its large families and strict customs, has a strong following in the north.

The calendar follows the light. Oulu hosts the Air Guitar World Championships and in 2026 is a European Capital of Culture; Sodankylä's Midnight Sun Film Festival shows films around the clock in June; Kuhmo's chamber-music festival fills Kainuu in July. Kaamos, the polar night, is borne with candles, sauna and cross-country skiing on lit trails.

Oulu, with about 215,000 residents, is the largest city in northern Finland; Rovaniemi has about 65,000, Kajaani about 36,000, and Kemi and Tornio around 20,000 each. Beyond them, villages are small and scattered: Lapland covers about a third of Finland's land but only a small share of its people.

The economy is wide-ranging. Oulu grew into a technology city around its university and IT firms; Kemi and Tornio have pulp and steel works; mines in Kittilä and Sodankylä extract gold and metals; and the Kemijoki dams generate hydro-power. Tourism is now one of Lapland's largest industries, and the rapid growth of winter visitors to Rovaniemi has put pressure on the town. In Kainuu, Vuokatti's sports resort and Kajaani's data centres have brought new work.

Daily life adjusts to the seasons: snowmobiles and skis in winter, berry picking and fishing in summer, and the constant presence of reindeer on village roads.

The north eats from the forest, fells and rivers. Poronkäristys, thinly shaved reindeer sautéed in fat and served with mashed potato and lingonberries, is the signature dish, and Lapland reindeer meat, Lapin poron liha, has protected designation of origin status in the EU. Smoked and dried reindeer are sliced thin as snacks, and Lapin Puikula, a small yellow potato, also holds EU protection.

Rivers and lakes supply Arctic char, whitefish, grayling and salmon, often salted, smoked over wood or grilled on a plank by the fire. Cloudberries, lakka or hilla, ripen on the northern bogs in July and August and are eaten with leipäjuusto, a baked squeaky cheese, or made into jam and liqueur; lingonberries and bilberries are picked everywhere.

Kainuu has its own pastry, rönttönen, a small open rye pie filled with potato and lingonberry, and Oulu shares the north's rieska flatbread and fish soups. Coffee is often drunk from a wooden kuksa cup outdoors, and in Lapland it may be poured over cubes of leipäjuusto.

Rovaniemi has the Arktikum science museum, the Rovaniemi Art Museum, Aalto's civic buildings and, just north on the Arctic Circle, the Santa Claus Village. West of it, Levi in Kittilä is Finland's largest ski resort, and Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park, Finland's most visited, follows a chain of fells for about 100 km, with dozens of hiking and skiing trails.

Further north, Saariselkä is the ski and hiking village at the edge of Urho Kekkonen National Park, and Inari has the Siida Sámi museum, the Sajos cultural centre, the wooden wilderness church at Pielpajärvi and boat trips on Lake Inari to the island of Ukonsaari, once sacred to the Sámi. Lemmenjoki National Park, with gold-panning history, lies to the west, and Sodankylä hosts its film festival. On the coast, Kemi's sights include the icebreaker Sampo.

In North Ostrobothnia, Oulu has its market square and harbour, the island of Hailuoto lies offshore, and the dunes of Kalajoki line the coast. Ruka-Kuusamo pairs a ski resort with Oulanka National Park and its Bear's Trail, Karhunkierros, past river rapids and valleys.

The Kainuu wilderness, to the south-east, offers Hossa National Park with its rock paintings, the Raate road Winter War museum near Suomussalmi, the bear forests of Kuhmo, Vuokatti, and Kajaani's castle ruins.