Laitakari beacon tower is a

daymark A daymark is a navigational aid for sailors and pilots, distinctively marked to maximize its visibility in daylight. The word is also used in a more specific, technical sense to refer to a signboard or daytime identifier that is attached to a ...

(

navigational aid Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

) located on the island of Laitakari in the

Gulf of Bothnia The Gulf of Bothnia (; fi, Pohjanlahti; sv, Bottniska viken) is divided into the Bothnian Bay and Bothnian Sea, and it is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea, between Finland's west coast ( East Bothnia) and the Sweden's east coast (West ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. The island is located east-northeast of

Hailuoto Hailuoto (; sv, Karlö) is a Finnish island in the northern Baltic Sea and a municipality in Northern Ostrobothnia region. The population of Hailuoto is (), which make it the smallest municipality in Northern Ostrobothnia and the former Oulu Pr ...

and is within the municipal boundaries of the City of Oulu. There has been a

on the island since the 1750s, and a beacon tower has been marked on a chart dated in 1785. The current Laitakari beacon tower was built in 1851. The top of the tower is built of wooden boards and painted red. The top structure is resting on top of supporting wooden beams wedged into the gravel. The structure survived the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

, and is still being used as a navigational aid. When aligned with the

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

Oulu Cathedral Oulu Cathedral ( fi, Oulun tuomiokirkko, sv, Uleåborgs domkyrka) is an Evangelical Lutheran cathedral and the seat of the Diocese of Oulu, located in the centre of Oulu, Finland. The church was built in 1777 as a tribute to the King of Sweden ...

, it guides small vessels to the fairway leading past the northern coastline of

island. The tower is 17,4 metres (57 ft) high from sea level and 15,6 metres (51 ft) from the ground.

Sources

* {{coord, 65, 3, 9, N, 25, 9, 28, E, display=title Towers completed in 1851 Buildings and structures in Oulu Gulf of Bothnia Beacon towers Landmarks in Finland 1851 establishments in the Russian Empire Daymarks