One summer morning a few years ago, Tuija Kilpeläinen woke up early, slipped outside with a cup of tea, petted several sheep, went for a swim and then did her yoga routine on the dock.
If that sounds pastoral and idyllic, indeed it was. However, Kilpeläinen does not live on a farm. She and her family were on a Shepherd for a Week holiday in Isojärvi National Park in central Finland.
Metsähallitus, the state-owned enterprise that manages Finland’s national parks, has offered such holidays since 2008. The season runs from May to September.
Some of the locations are quite unique. You can spend a week as a shepherd on a small island in the middle of the Bothnian Bay, between Finland and Sweden. Another possibility is a 19th-century Sámi farm. (The Sámi are the only recognised Indigenous People in the EU area. Their northern homeland, called Sápmi, is divided into four parts by the borders of the nation-states Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia.)
Sheep shape the landscape
Isojärvi National Park in central Finland is one of the locations where Tuija Kilpeläinen and her family have stayed on a Shepherd for a Week holiday.Photo: Pekka Veijola/Metsähallitus
It’s more than just a nice holiday in the country. The greater significance is the maintenance of traditional environments, such as wooded pastures. The grazing animals do a valuable job by keeping the pastures open, providing habitat for many endangered species.
Deputising holiday-goers as shepherds reduces the workload required to ensure the animals’ wellbeing.
No specific skills are required to participate. Daily tasks include counting the animals, checking how well they are doing and making sure they have fresh drinking water. Should there be any problems, the shepherds report them to the animals’ owners.
The luxury of no-frills living
A shepherd vacationer tends to the flock on Pensaskari, an island in Bothnian Bay National Park in northern Finland.Photo: Jari Salonen/Metsähallitus
Adapting to a no-frills style of living is a must, since the shepherds stay on old farms, most of which don’t have running water. Some locations don’t have electricity. For Tuija Kilpeläinen, the limited luxury was an essential part of the experience.
“We all agreed that we could have stayed for another week,” she says. “I even think that everyone should be required to try this kind of experience.”
Shepherd for a Week has become very popular, and those wishing to secure a spot must enlist for a lottery held over the winter. This year, there were more than 2,200 applicants for the 169 weeks available in 15 different locations.
They keep coming back
Tuija Kilpeläinen has participated in Shepherd for a Week several times over the years.Photo courtesy of Tuija Kilpeläinen
Since their first experience in 2020, Tuija Kilpeläinen and her family have gone on two other shepherding holidays, and at the time of writing they are about to embark on another one. This time, they’re keeping an eye on cows instead of sheep.
“My partner has a dairy farm, so he agreed to come along on the condition that he doesn’t have to take care of any cows on our holiday,” she says. “He does enough of that anyway.”
By Juha Mäkinen, July 2024
