The port of Kõrgessaare was the most important settlement on the island in the 16th century when it was the major port for trading with Sweden. The Ungern-Sternberg family hoped to revive it, building a distillery and a fish-processing plant around 1900, but World War I dashed these plans. A local brochure touchingly writes that Kõrgessaare 'is crying out for restoration'; sadly nothing more can be said at present.
