A Metal Pilgrimage to Lake Bodom, Espoo

Last year at Finland, Naturally we put together a list called A Metalhead’s Travel Guide to Finland, featuring Finnish travel destinations that are connected, in one way or another, to metal music. The list includes many otherwise well-known destinations, some of which have served as filming locations for music videos. But when you think about the world of Finnish metal and the places tied to it, one name quickly rises above the rest: Lake Bodom.

• Location on the map
• Fire pit: cooking shelter along the exercise trail (not on the shore)
• Getting there by public transport: HSL bus 246 from Espoo Centre, stop: Oittaanranta
• Getting there by car: Kunnarlantie 33–39, Espoo

For those of us who don’t know the Espoo area all that well: if you want to visit Lake Bodom, head for the Oittaa outdoor recreation centre, which sits right on the lakeshore.

Our trip fell in the middle of summer, and the clock had already crept toward eleven at night. Even so, the sun was still shining through the clouds, and we got to walk the shoreline paths of Lake Bodom in surreally beautiful, low-angled sunlight that shimmered on the tree trunks and foliage of the shoreline forest and reflected off the water’s surface.

I’ve heard that Lake Bodom is an essential stop for many metal fans arriving in Helsinki. Plot K58 in Malmi Cemetery and Bodom Bar & Sauna in Niittykumpu are surely also on many visitors’ lists. I’ve heard a couple of different stories about how the place’s name ended up as the name of the Espoo band Children of Bodom. For us too, the band was the primary reason to come and visit this particular shore in the middle of the most beautiful Finnish summer night.

I didn’t really know what I had expected, but it certainly wasn’t anything this stunningly beautiful. I’m not much of a fan of large outdoor and sports centres myself, and maybe I had feared the area would be packed full of every kind of sports field and playground imaginable. I had also expected huge crowds spending a warm summer evening there. Or maybe I had simply expected a dark, bleak murder scene. On every count, I was completely wrong. You should never assume anything.

My jaw dropped in awe as we walked from the corner of the parking lot onto the pedestrian and cycling path leading into the forest. The natural beauty was mesmerizing, and there were only occasional people here and there – mainly a few young men fishing quietly along the shoreline.

The small sandy beaches, the lapping of the waves, and the lush, sheltering feel of the forest swept me away almost instantly. Of course, the stories of the Lake Bodom murders were also on my mind, and they did cast their own particular shadow over our steps.

A lone rowboat rested very picturesquely in a sandy cove. I wish I’d remembered to bring my swimsuit — I would definitely have gone for a swim as well.

On the southern shore of the lake, two headlands jut out into the water side by side. The western one (pictured below) is higher and rockier, while the eastern one is lower and more forested. I haven’t managed to find names for these headlands on any map, but some people know the eastern one as Murhaniemi (“Murder Point”).

Someone had brought a bouquet of roses to the foot of a spruce tree on Murhaniemi. The mood had grown fairly bleak, the evening had cooled off, and the sun had disappeared behind the clouds. A small group of teenagers moving around on the shore, though, managed to lighten the energy, and things no longer felt quite so somber. We continued along the trail a while longer, further into the forest.

East of Murhaniemi, a wide trail runs parallel to the shoreline, surrounded by lush forest. The narrow strip of land between the trail and the water is a nature conservation area.

At the junction we turned right and started looping back toward the Oittaa outdoor recreation centre and the parking lot. The shift in atmosphere between the intimate forest and the wide-open parking area was quite something.

I can’t really imagine a finer time to visit than a late midsummer evening, though Lake Bodom no doubt shows its best side during the stormy autumn days of foliage season too. Either way, it’s well worth a visit, whether your reason is musical, active, or simply enjoying nature.

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A Metalhead’s Travel Guide to Finland

This article was translated with the help of AI and reviewed by the author.

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