Northern battery No. 3 and The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Northern battery No. 3

   Kotlin Island is only about twelve kilometres long and rarely more than a kilometre or two wide, and every metre of its northern shore was given over to guns. A numbered battery like this one is the sort of thing that appears on a map as a dull label and turns out to be a lump of overgrown concrete and earth, with ammunition stores half buried in the ground and a view across a shallow, pewter-coloured sea. Kronstadt, four or five kilometres away, was founded by Peter the Great in the first years of the eighteenth century to keep Swedish ships out of the new capital's approaches, and the fortifications grew in layers for the next two hundred years.

   Read the complete Northern battery No. 3 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Northern battery No. 3 is where the day begins. Next is Sestroretsky Razliv.

2. 2. Sestroretsky Razliv

   Sestroretsk is a small town on the north shore of the Gulf of Finland, in a landscape of pine-covered dunes, shallow bays and lakes, and it has an industrial origin that surprises visitors. In 1721 Peter the Great founded an arms factory on the Sestra river here, and a dam created a broad reservoir to power it. That reservoir, Razliv, which means flood or spill, is the lake that gives the place its name. The water, ringed by reeds and birches, is a favourite spot for locals to swim, fish and walk.

   Read the complete Sestroretsky Razliv write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Sestroretsky Razliv comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate.

3. 3. The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate

   On the north shore of the Neva Bay, at the edge of the modern city, lies Lakhta, a district that was a village of Finnish and Ingrian farmers when Peter the Great first built his capital. By the nineteenth century the waterfront was dotted with country estates for the St Petersburg aristocracy, and the Steinbock-Fermor family held one of them, a park of old trees and lawns with a manor house by the Gulf of Finland. The estate park, shaded and quiet, is the kind of place where the city's dacha culture began.

   Read the complete The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 38 km into the recorded legs you reach The Steinbok-Fermor's Estate. Next is back through Sestroretsky Razliv.

4. 4. back through Sestroretsky Razliv

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Sestroretsky Razliv write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Sestroretsky Razliv, late in the day. Next is Northern battery No. 3, 17 km on.

5. 5. Northern battery No. 3

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Northern battery No. 3 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Northern battery No. 3. That is the ride.