Every design for Larsmo

Larsmo is a scatter of more than three hundred and sixty islands and countless skerries off the Ostrobothnian coast, between Kokkola and Pietarsaari, land lifted out of the Gulf of Bothnia by post-glacial rebound. The largest islands are Larsmo and Eugmo, the shoreline winds on for hundreds of kilometres, and the municipality also holds Larsmosjön, the largest artificial freshwater lake in Finland.

Bjärgas hembygdsgård, the local homestead museum, keeps the memory of the fishing, hunting and farming that once fed the islands, and of the crafts and boat building that still shape local business. Out on Orrskär a monument marks the dark autumn night when the gun-running steamer John Grafton slipped into the archipelago and islanders helped carry its weapons ashore, before the stranded ship was blown up. Another ship, the Equity, unloaded here too, and a plaque stands on Tolvmangrundet.

Nearly everyone here speaks Swedish, and the population has kept growing for decades. If Larsmo is home, you know the swim at Kackur simstrand and the water between Holm and Risö; take that map with you wherever you end up.