Kairala is a small agricultural village along the Kitinen River, north of Pelkosenniemi's centre. Its importance is not size but survival: parts of the village escaped the destruction that erased so much old building fabric in Lapland during the war.
Come for a slow look at the river setting and traditional wooden buildings, not for services. It is the kind of village that makes more sense if you have already seen newer Lapland towns and want to understand what older settlement patterns looked like.