Yeah, check that out. Suomenlinna was originally called Sveaborg, when it was built by the Swedes to defend the entrance to Helsinki's harbor. (Suomenlinna means "The Castle of Finland" in Finnish). It covers six separate islands and 210 hectares, with 6 km of walls. It's a city district with a year round population of about 800, although that includes 100 prisoners in a minimum security prison (they do a lot of the grunt maintenance work while serving their sentence).
The island is a short (15 to 20 minute) ferry ride from Helsinki's old harbor. If you are entering or leaving Helsinki by sea and choose the Viking line or Silja line ferries that leave from the old harbor, you'll get the best views of Suomenlinna.
This is as our ferry squeezes through a channel barely wider than it is!
With several museums, a couple of restaurants (I recommend the old brewery located lit. in the building with the visitors' center, which should be an overpriced mediocre tourist stop but isn't), and lots of walking, the island is at least a days' time for most people. I could have spent two, easily.
Oh, and keep your phone charged. Some of the nooks and crannies require a flashlight. It's like a dungeon crawl...
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