At 63° North — where the midnight sun lingers and winters test endurance at 35 below — a young couple has made a life on a once-forgotten island in Finland.
source.image: Kirsten Dirksen
Ten years ago, Klaus purchased this abandoned 1.5-hectare isle for a modest price. It had been left untouched for 42 years, with only a collapsing 150-year-old log cabin and an old sauna where generations before him had been born. He saw not ruin, but potential: trees for lumber, land for food, and a place to root a new, quieter, way of life.
Over the years, Klaus taught himself natural building, milling wood from his own forest, carving replacement logs by hand, crafting floors and ceilings, and plastering walls with clay. The dream grew when Johanna joined him, and now the two are preparing to welcome their first child — perhaps in the same sauna where the island’s former inhabitants once entered the world.
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This is Islestead: their homestead, their island, their story of resilience and renewal. From tending crops to storing food in a root cellar, from saunas by the lake to carving beams with hand tools, their life is a return to slower rhythms and self-sufficiency. It takes just a 5-minute boat ride to reach their off-grid homestead. We caught a ride to see how Klaus and Johanna have built a fulfilling life on their small private island.
