Around 140 islands, islets and skerries
The islands
Ekerö municipality is nothing but islands. Most are uninhabited islets, but half a dozen large ones carry the whole municipality: Ekerön with the centre, Lovön with the palace, Färingsö with the farms, Munsön, Adelsö and Björkö. Here they are, one by one.
The municipal boundary runs through Lake Mälaren. The map is based on OpenStreetMap and shows the larger islands; islets under a hectare or so have been removed.
Ekerön
The main island, where the municipality has its centre at Tappström and most of its housing: Träkvista, Ekerö sommarstad, Älvnäs and Sandudden. Munsön has been joined to Ekerön in the north since land rise filled in the sound.
- Ekerö centre at Tappström, with the bus terminal, shops and library.
- Ekerö church from the late 1100s, built as an estate church for Asknäs.
- Ekebyhov manor, owned by the municipality since 1980, with a café, gallery and the apple gene bank since 1998.
- Jungfrusund in the south, where the ferry from Slagsta lands, with a marina and restaurants.
- Rastaholm, Skytteholm and Kaggeholm, lakeside estates that today are an inn, a hotel and a conference venue.
Lovön and Kärsön
The island closest to Stockholm. Drottningholm lies on the eastern shore, and the rest of the island is a nature reserve of fields, oak pastures and forest. Kärsön is joined to Lovön by the Drottningholm bridge and is the nearest piece of Mälaren-island countryside for Stockholmers.
- Drottningholm Palace, the park, the Chinese Pavilion and the Court Theatre.
- Lovö church from the second half of the 1100s, with the Lovö local history museum next to it.
- Lovö nature reserve since 2014, just over 3,200 hectares of which two thirds are land, with the Fornstigen trail and the roughly 17-kilometre Lovö runt trail.
- Kärsön with bathing, oaks and walking paths, nearest the Nockeby bridge.
Färingsö
The largest island by area, north of Ekerön with the Tappström bridge between them. Stenhamra is the built-up area, Skå and Kungsberga the villages with shops, and around them the farming, the farm shops and the cider presses that have made Färingsö known.
- Stenhamra, which grew up around the quarry where Stockholm's paving stones were cut from 1884, at full tilt until 1919 and closed in 1937. The quarrymen's houses still stand.
- Svartsjö Palace, the hunting lodge that Carl Hårleman designed for Fredrik I in the 1730s, for a hundred years a labour institution and prison, today open with guided tours, museum rooms, a bookshop and a café.
- Färentuna church from around 1175, and the churches of Hilleshög, Skå and Sånga, all medieval.
- Sånga-Säby on Lake Mälaren and the Troxhammar golf course.
- Eldgarnsö nature reserve, an island with a bridge, known for its oak pastures and spring flowers.
Munsön
The long, narrow island north of Ekerön, in practice a peninsula today. Rural, with orchards and farms, and the road to the Adelsö ferry at the far northern end.
- Munsö church, one of Sweden's few round churches, built in the 1100s.
- Hilma af Klint's studio, the house the artist had built in 1917 and lived in until 1920. The house is private; the association that keeps her memory has its visitor centre on Adelsö.
- Farm shops, pick-your-own, the Bonavik nature reserve on the Uppsala ridge and the ferry landing at the northern tip.
Adelsö
One of the three largest islands, without a bridge: you arrive by the free road ferry from Munsö, six minutes across the sound. A farming island with villages, a church, a bathing spot and the Hovgården World Heritage site.
- Hovgården with the royal mounds, the rune stone and the ruin of Alsnö hus.
- Adelsö church from the early 1100s, with the Hovgården jetty below it where the boat to Birka leaves.
- The Adelsö bathing spot, the Adelsö-Sättra nature reserve and the 16-kilometre hiking trail that passes Hovgården.
- The Adelsö heritage farm with the municipality's information point for the World Heritage site, and the Hilma af Klint association's visitor centre in the old vicarage.
Björkö, Helgö and Kungshatt
Björkö is Birka and is reached only by boat in season. Helgö lies between Ekerön and Kungshatt, with a road across from the Ekerö side and Kaggeholm at its eastern end. Kungshatt, nearest Stockholm, is a holiday island without a bridge.
- Birka the Viking town, the museum and the burial grounds on Björkö.
- The Helgö ancient monument area, the trading place in use from the 200s, excavated from 1954 into the 1980s.
- Kaggeholm, the estate that Lars Kagg bought in 1647, today a conference venue and the filming location for Young Royals.
- Kungshatt with the hat on its pole, visible from the commuter boat that stops at Kungshättan.
How the islands connect
From Stockholm the road crosses the Nockeby bridge to Kärsön, the Drottningholm bridge to Lovön, passes through the Lindö tunnel and crosses the Tappström bridge to Ekerön. From Ekerö centre, Färentunavägen runs north to Färingsö and Munsövägen to Munsön, where the road ends at the Adelsö ferry. South from Jungfrusund the toll ferry runs to Slagsta in Botkyrka. Björkö and Kungshatt have no road connection, and there is also the commuter boat from Tappström to Stockholm. All connections.
Information last checked 19 October 2026.