Synninlukko

Synninlukko accessible nature destination is a stunning ravin valley between Jämsänkoski and Jämsä, 7 km from the Jämsä city centre as the crow flies. This breathtaking, shady gorge valley is 50 metres wide and 10-20 metres deep, surrounded by sheer rock faces.

With the accessible tril, people with limited mobility can also enjoy the area. The nature trail implemented in ravin valley is intended for people who are outdoors on foot, in wheelchairs or with strollers.

There is a 400m accessible gravel road from the parking lot and after that you can approach the Synninluko ravin landscape on a 65 m long wooden pathway. The accessible section ends with a platform serving as a resting point, with two groups of tables. After the accessible route is a nature reserve begins, which is challenging to walk through.

The area is protected for its lush, deciduous vegetation. Rare plants, such as the protected drooping woodreed, also grow here. The wet mire areas are spring-fed. On a hot summer day, the air here is cool as the sun’s rays don’t reach the bottom of the gorge. In the spring, the gorge walls are covered by a delicate sheen of ice.

Synninlukko is the source of many local tales and lore. The shady depths of the rocky gorge has always been an excellent hiding place. During the Great Northern War, it was something of a civilian shelter. The gorge was also a popular haunt of hobos. A potable spring flows from the bottom of the gorge. According to one folk tale, the Synninlukko spring is so deep that when a heifer from from the gorge rim into the spring, it later turned up in the Jämsänjoki River. I wilder versions of the tale, it re-appeared all the way over in Päijänne.

In the Häme dialect of Finnish, the word ‘lukko’ means ‘closed gorge’. The Jämsä word for this is ‘rotti’. The name ‘Synninlukko’ is older than the ‘sins’ of the war – it actually refers to a ‘birth’, ‘synnyinlukko’. Presumably, the gorge had been the birthplace of exiles.

It is easy to reach Synninlukko. The road runs almost all the way to the site and there is a parking shoulder on the side of the road. The 1.8 km trail is easy. The trail climbing up from the gorge watershed is more demanding.