Tiirismaa is a large hill in Hollola municipality, near the city of Lahti in Finland. It is in fact the tallest hill in southern Finland at 223 meters above sea level. At the hill, there is a small canyon called the Devil’s Nest. A nature trail through the forest at Tiirismaa hill leads to the Devil’s Nest as well as to a lake and swamp near the hill. During winter, there is a ski trail at the nature trail at Tiirismaa. There are still smaller paths that can be walked through without having to go to the ski trail for long.

I went to Tiirisma in early morning during a clear winter day to take these pictures. Just before this trip, I got myself a new backpack and a small tripod so I can take pictures in low light and with a low-speed film. With the backpack I can now also carry both my digital camera and film camera at the same time. For this trip, I only had my film camera with Ektar 100 film. The tripod is small and light to fit in the backpack, but it was not the most stable. Still, I could not have taken some of these pictures without it, especially before it became brighter as the sun rose. Some of these pictures are still taken without the tripod.

I got to the Devil’s Nest as the sun started shining on the trees at the top of the canyon. The canyon is only about 10 meters high at highest part. It still looked pretty impressive from below. The tripod was necessary at this point to get sharp pictures while the rest of the canyon was still in shade.

The path through the nature trail next led to cliffs around the Devil’s Nest and to a small camping and campfire place. A large TV and radio mast at the center of the Tiirismaa hill was visible occasionally through the forest. The mast is the tallest building in Finland at 327 meters high.

After the camping area, the path continued through the forests of Tiirismaa. A small stream near the path I went was partially molten despite it being a pretty cold day then.

At the nature trail, there is a vantage point from where the lake of Iso-Tiilijärvi can be seen through the trees. To get here during winter, you would have to walk through the skit rail for some time and I did not want to do that. I walked down to the coast of the lake and then back up off the path the hill to get to the vantage point. The view was mostly blocked by trees, but I did take a picture there. I then walked down to the coast again and continued along it.

From the lake I went to the swamp of Soisalmensuo to the south of the Tiirismaa hill. I had planned to walk for longer across the swamp and to the other side of Iso-Tiilisjärvi lake, but I ran out of film at this point and decided to just walk a shorter path back to where I started.