Tärnö is an island in the

Blekinge archipelago Blekinge archipelago is an archipelago in the Baltic Sea, located in Blekinge in the south of Sweden. Geography Blekinge archipelago stretches among almost the entire coastline of Blekinge, from west to east. It covers some including water; the ...

, the largest and southernmost island in

Hällaryd archipelago Hällaryd is a locality in Karlshamn Municipality, Blekinge County, Sweden with 546 inhabitants in 2010. It is between Karlshamn and Ronneby, featuring the archipelago south of Matvik with Tärnö Tärnö is an island in the Blekinge archipela ...

, in

Karlshamn Karlshamn () is a locality and the seat of Karlshamn Municipality in Blekinge County, Sweden. It had 13,576 inhabitants in 2015, out of 31,846 in the municipality. Karlshamn received a Royal Charter and city privileges in 1664, when King Charles X ...

municipality,

Blekinge County Blekinge County ( sv, Blekinge län) is a county or '' län'' in the south of Sweden. It borders the Counties of Skåne, Kronoberg, Kalmar and the Baltic Sea. The capital is Karlskrona. It is the smallest of the present administrative countie ...

Geography

The island measures 115.7 ha (285.9 acres) in surface. The island boasts forty homesteads, now nearly all in use as summer residences.

History

The island's population was once a farming and fishing community, to which many traces bear witness to this day. Tärnö was an important

piloting Piloting or pilotage is the process of navigating on water or in the air using fixed points of reference on the sea or on land, usually with reference to a nautical chart or aeronautical chart to obtain a fix of the position of the vessel or air ...

centre during the first half of the 20th century. During that same period, cobblestones were hewn on the island for shipping to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and other countries. The island featured in a number of

Per Gunnar Evander Per is a Latin preposition which means "through" or "for each", as in per capita. Per or PER may also refer to: Places * IOC country code for Peru * Pér, a village in Hungary * Chapman code for Perthshire, historic county in Scotland Math ...

's novels.

Communications and Services

Ferry services to Tärnö are maintained from Karlshamn and from

Matvik Matvik is a small harbor in Karlshamn Municipality in southeastern Sweden. It is used for ferry services into the Hällaryd, or Karlshamn, archipelago out south to Tärnö Tärnö is an island in the Blekinge archipelago, the largest and southe ...

. Additionally, taxi boats frequent the island. A

kiosk Historically, a kiosk () was a small garden pavilion open on some or all sides common in Iran, Persia, the Indian subcontinent, and in the Ottoman Empire from the 13th century onward. Today, several examples of this type of kiosk still exist ...

is found on the island serving simple food items and other necessities as well as a community centre which is rented out for summer camps and the like. The island's old teacher's residence is also rented out during summer, as are many smaller cottages, both municipally and privately owned.

Sights

Tärnö has two

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

s. A large wooden one featuring a drum lens at the island's highest point was built in 1910 to replace a predecessor.Svenska Fyrsällskapet
The other one is a simple structure for guiding coastal fishery which only has a 40

Watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

bulb. A known sight apart from the picturesque cottages and the unique natural surroundings is the ''fiskgökaeken'' (a hollow centuries-old oak tree), a few Iron Age graves as well as a large naturally formed stone terrace. A number of military installations is still found on the island as a remnant of the time it formed part of the

Swedish Navy The Swedish Navy ( sv, Svenska marinen) is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet () – as well as marine units, the Amphibious Corps (). In Swedish, vessels o ...

's shooting range which made the island off-limits to all non-Swedes.

References

*This article is based on a full translation of the Swedish article on Tärnö {{DEFAULTSORT:Tarno Islands of Blekinge County