Valtimo: Museums, historic farmsteads and hiking trails

Valtimo invites you to discover its local history and landscapes in different ways: in museums offering insights into rural life, schooling and forestry, or on trails ranging from short loops to longer routes. When planning your trip, consider whether you would prefer to focus on exhibitions and historic buildings or on hiking trails.

Museums and traces of everyday life in the past

The ground floor of the Makasiinimuseo is devoted to rural household objects from the first half of the 20th century. Upstairs, an exhibition on forestry displays old chainsaws from the Valtimo Forestry Machinery School. During guided tours, visitors can learn more about the objects and past working methods—a way to connect the exhibits with their historical use.

The Valtimo Wooden School also brings several themes together under one roof. The school museum is housed in a hundred-year-old primary school building and displays old teaching materials as well as an exhibition on local history. Other sections of the museum cover the Martat, the school and the fire brigade. Next to the museum, there is a summer café that hosts exhibitions and events for visitors of all ages.

The Tuprakuikan Museum preserves historic objects dating back as far as a hundred years. These include rural household items, tools for slash-and-burn cultivation, handmade decorative objects and newspaper clippings. An unusual collection comprises more than 1,000 birds carved from burl wood. The Omatoimimuseo tells the story of Valtimo through a range of occupations, including in exhibition areas about a painter and a seamstress. The museum has wheelchair-accessible access and a wheelchair-accessible toilet; assistance dogs are welcome.

The Murtovaara House Museum offers another perspective on the past. The farmstead complex comprises 16 traditionally built wooden buildings; even the roofs are made of birch bark, as was customary until the 19th century. The buildings date from the 1840s to the 1940s and illustrate changes in domestic culture. A forest trail leads to the museum and its traditional North Karelian farmstead complex. Murtovaara is the only museum in eastern Finland to tell the story of settlement on hillsides and uplands, and it is a nationally significant cultural landscape.

Valtimo’s Orthodox church also tells a distinctive story: its building was originally constructed as a tsasouna, or prayer chapel, and was consecrated as a church in 2005. The icons are based on 12th-century frescoes and use compositions without painted frames.

Hiking trails by length and character

The approximately 20-kilometre Talonpojan taival runs from Lokkisaari in Valtimo via Syrjän Pitkokset to the provincial boundary in the direction of Hiidenportti National Park. There are several fire pits and shelters along the route. The approximately 32-kilometre Hurtan taival runs between Lokkisaari and the Känkkäälä area in Nurmes and partly follows the UKK Trail. You can include two particularly challenging sections in your plans for this longer route.

One section of the Talonpojan taival is the approximately 8-kilometre Murtovaara–Autiovaara route. It starts at the Murtovaara House Museum and follows boardwalks for part of the way towards the Tammikoski shelter and Syrjän Pitkokset. Syrjän Pitkokset itself is an approximately 3-kilometre section of the Talonpojan taival: it leads from the boundary between Kainuu and North Karelia towards the centre of Valtimo and the Tammikoski shelter. The just under 3.8-kilometre Kokkoharju route is an out-and-back trail that follows the UKK Trail through the Kokkoharju terrain in Valtimo.

For a shorter trail with a connection to local history, try the 1.5-kilometre Hurtan kierros. It starts in the courtyard of the Tuprakuikan Museum, runs along the riverbank and passes information boards about the area’s history and a fire pit. In Lokkisaari, there is also a winter swimming spot on Lokkiharjuntie.

Discover more places

If you would also like to explore other places: Liperi, Karhunmäki, Säyneinen, Kiihtelysvaara, Vuonislahti, Ilomantsi, Polvijärvi and Tolosenmäki.

For the broader travel overview: North Karelia.