Where to Stay in Kolari, Lapland

Kolari is known as the northernmost railhead in Finland, the place in Lapland where the overnight trains from the south end their run. The Torne River draws the Swedish border past the town. From here most travellers carry on to the fells of Ylläs, and the old Kolarin kirkko keeps the centre of this Arctic municipality where the long line of rail meets the river country.

The Kolarin kirkko is the landmark of the town, the parish church that holds the centre of Kolari in Lapland, and the belfry of the old church, the Kolarin vanhan kirkon tapuli, stands as a survivor of an earlier parish. Churches mark the river country. Out in the municipality the Sieppijärven kirkko serves the parish hamlet of Sieppijärvi, the small Pyhän Laurin kappeli stands among the woods, and the island of Vaarasaari and the old packing road of the Telatie carry the older history of this Arctic corner along the Torne River.

Kolari grew up along the river that marks the border. The Torne River, the longest free-flowing river in Europe, drew settlers to its banks in this far corner of Lapland, and the old packing road of the Telatie carried trade and iron through the woods long before any railway reached the north. The river made the parish.

Churches rose to gather the scattered hamlets, the Kolarin kirkko at the centre and the Sieppijärven kirkko out in the parish hamlet of Sieppijärvi, with the belfry of the Kolarin vanhan kirkon tapuli left standing from an earlier age of worship by the water. The municipality was set on its own footing when Kolari was chartered in 1867, a thin agrarian parish of farms, forest and river banks scattered across the Arctic north. Rail came late and changed the town.

The line pushed up from the south to make Kolari the northernmost railhead in Finland, the overnight trains ending their run here, and the town turned into the doorway to the fells of Ylläs while the old churches and the island of Vaarasaari kept the memory of the parish along the Torne River.

Kolari spreads along the Torne River in the far Arctic north of Lapland, the river drawing the Swedish border down the western edge of the municipality. Forest, fell and water fill the land. The town centre gathers near the Kolarin kirkko by the river, while the fells of Ylläs rise to the east and the island of Vaarasaari sits out in the stream.

It is a wide, thinly peopled parish. Hamlets such as Sieppijärvi lie scattered across the woods, and the long northern terrain of forest and bog runs on toward the higher fells of this corner of the Arctic north.

Kolari has the hard subarctic climate of the far north of Lapland, with long and deeply cold winters that hold snow over the Torne River for many months on end. The light swings to extremes. The brief summer runs cool and bright under the endless northern day, when the river and the woods around the Kolarin kirkko open up before the snow returns to bury the fells of Ylläs and the long winter closes in once more over this Arctic parish.

Kolari is the northernmost railhead in Finland, the point in Lapland where the overnight trains from the south end their line. Travellers ride the rails north. The sleeper from the capital reaches the station by the Torne River, and from there buses carry on to the fells of Ylläs and the wider Arctic north.

Cars come up the long roads as well, following the river and the Swedish border past the Kolarin kirkko into this far corner of Lapland.