Słowiński National Park: shifting dunes on the Baltic coast

How this landscape was made

This coast is geologically young and still moving. A few thousand years ago the lakes Łebsko and Gardno were bays of the Baltic. Longshore currents built sand spits across their mouths, the bays were cut off, and they became shallow, slightly brackish lakes. Łebsko now covers over seventy square kilometres, making it Poland's third largest lake — yet it is only a few metres deep, and Gardno is shallower still.

On the spits the wind is still at work. Westerlies carry sand inland and push the dunes forward by several metres a year, a rate usually given as three to ten. The advancing sand buries woodland, which emerges decades later on the far side as a skeleton forest of bleached, dead trunks. The Łącka Dune, the tallest of them, rises to about forty-two metres, and its height shifts with the strength of the gales.

The park was established on 1 January 1967. In 2004 its boundaries were extended over a strip of the Baltic, so it now covers more than thirty-two thousand hectares, of which over eleven thousand are sea. On land, water dominates: the lakes account for well over half the area, with the rest divided among forest, bog, meadow, beach and dune.

The Slovincians behind the name

The Slovincians were a West Slavic group closely related to the Kashubians who lived around Łebsko and Gardno, on the narrow strips of dry ground between water and marsh. They fished, kept livestock and cut reeds, and their distinct speech and customs lasted here longer than in the surrounding country. Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the community was Germanised, and what remained of it dispersed after the Second World War.

Their memory is kept at Kluki on the southern shore of Łebsko, where an open-air museum preserves timber-framed cottages, some standing where they were built and some moved there. It is one of the few places that shows what daily life between lake and bog looked like before asphalt and tourism arrived.

The other landmark is Rowokół, a moraine hill of a hundred and fifteen metres, the highest point in the park and for centuries a place of worship. From the tower on the summit you see both lakes, the dune belt and the sea at once, which is the quickest way to grasp how the park fits together. At its foot lies Smołdzino, with the park headquarters and a natural history museum.

Birds, seals and plants of the sand

For birdwatchers this is one of the key sites on the Polish coast. Around two hundred and seventy species have been recorded, roughly a hundred and sixty of them breeding. The shallow lakes and their reed beds are a stopover for very large migrating flocks; in spring and autumn the numbers on Łebsko are hard to take in. White-tailed eagles hunt over the water, and the park's emblem is the herring gull.

On the quieter stretches of beach grey seals sometimes haul out. Do not approach them or drive them back into the water — an animal on the sand is almost always simply resting. The park's waters also hold migratory fish, for which the lakes and their channels to the sea are a route to the spawning grounds.

The flora runs to about nine hundred and twenty vascular plant species, and the most interesting are those that cope with moving sand. Marram grass and lyme grass bind the foredunes; further inland comes crowberry pine forest, and the hollows between dunes hold bogs with sundew and marsh Labrador tea. All of it grows on ground that can move within a single season.

Protection and the rules that follow

In 1977 the park joined the world network of UNESCO biosphere reserves, and in 1995 its wetlands were added to the Ramsar list as a waterbird habitat of international importance. The area also belongs to the European Natura 2000 network.

In practice that means a short list worth knowing before you set off: stay on marked paths and boardwalks, no driving into the park, no camping outside designated sites, dogs on a lead. On the dunes this is enforced strictly, because every step off the path breaks the thin cover of vegetation that holds the sand in place.

Getting there and where to enter

• From Łeba — the busiest entrance, via Rąbka; from there a few kilometres of surfaced track to the dunes on foot, by bike or by electric cart.
• From Smołdzino and Czołpino — the quieter side; a path from Czołpino climbs the dune to a twenty-five-metre lighthouse and carries on to the beach.
• From Rowy — the western end of the park and a convenient start towards Lake Gardno.
• By train — to Lębork or Słupsk, then a bus to Łeba, Smołdzino or Rowy.
• Worth knowing — there is no shade and no water on the dunes, so start early, carry more to drink than seems necessary, and wear closed shoes.

How to get there and practical info

Location

Baltic coast between Łeba and Rowy, Pomeranian Voivodeship

Established

1 January 1967; extended over a strip of the Baltic in 2004

Area

over 32,000 hectares, including more than 11,000 hectares of sea

UNESCO biosphere reserve

since 1977

Ramsar site

since 1995

Largest lakes

Łebsko, Poland's third largest, and Gardno — both shallow and once sea bays

Tallest dune

Łącka Dune, about 42 m; the dunes advance 3–10 m a year

Highest point

Rowokół, 115 m, with a viewing tower

Time needed

half a day for the dunes alone, at least two days for the whole park

Note

paths and boardwalks only, no vehicle access, camping at designated sites only

Current opening times and tickets

official park website

When to go