Estonia is a small country with a surprisingly long coastline. Surrounded on 2-1/2 sides by water, it faces the Gulf of Riga on the southwest, the Baltic Sea on the west, and the Gulf of Finland on the north. There are two large islands in the Baltic, Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and countless small islands. To guard these coasts Estonia has more than 100 lighthouses and a well-developed lighthouse administration. This page includes lighthouses of the northwest coast, including the counties of Läänemaa and Hiiumaa. Lighthouses of the Gulf of Finland coast are on the Northern Estonia and Eastern Estonia pages, and lighthouses of the Gulf of Riga are on the Southwestern Estonia page. Estonia's independence is recent. The country was part of the Swedish Empire from 1625 to 1710 and then part of the Russian Empire from 1710 until the end of World War I in 1918. After two decades of independence it was incorporated into the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1990. Thus the older lighthouses are from the Russian Imperial period and some of the newer ones are of Soviet construction. Lighthouses in Estonia are operated by the Maritime Administration (Veeteede Amet or VTA). In Estonian a lighthouse is a tuletorn (fire tower), a tulepaak, or a majakas. A daybeacon is called a päevamärk, saar is an island, madal is a shoal, neem is a cape or headland, and väin is a strait. Names in curly brackets {} are non-Estonian former names (Swedish or German). ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. VTA numbers are from the web site of the Estonian Maritime Administration. Admiralty numbers are from volume C of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 116.
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Lighthouses of Hiiu County
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![]() Range Rear Light, Emmaste, October 2017 photo copyright Darlene Chisholm; used by permission |
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![]() Kõpu Light, Körgessaare, July 2007 Flickr Creative Commons photo by Cyrus Farivar (no longer online) |
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Lighthouses of Lääne County
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: Northern Estonia | South: Southwestern Estonia
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted May 1, 2005. Checked and revised May 10, 2020. Lighthouses: 31. Site copyright 2020 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.