Gotska Sandön

Gotska Sandön National Park was established on 24 May 1909 and protects an island of some 45 km² in the middle of the Baltic Sea, some forty kilometres north of Gotland. It is one of the nine founding Swedish national parks and the only one of that first batch located at sea; the rest were concentrated in the north of the country.

The island is entirely of sand: a glacial deposit reworked by wind and waves, with beaches all around it, fields of mobile and fossil dunes in the interior and not a single natural harbour, which has always made landing difficult and explains its isolation. It has no permanent population and access depends on the state of the sea.

On the sand grows an open pine wood of great value: the absence of forestry has allowed deadwood to accumulate in exceptional quantities, and that supports one of the richest saproxylic beetle communities in northern Europe, with species that in Sweden live only here. The beaches are a haul-out area for grey seal and the island is an important staging point for Baltic migratory birds. Its history includes shipwrecks, a lighthouse, remains of seasonal fishing and the legend of the pirates said to have used it as a refuge.