Tag: stone circle

Ekornavallen

As soon as we installed ourselves in Skövde, we drove up here after a day long drive down from Bollnäs. Just in time for the sunset. Last warm rays of sunlight made the grass turn copper; swarms of flies became fairy dust. As I was walking around the meadow a pair of birds kept me company and followed me wherever I went. Even though I couldn’t identify them, I was grateful for their company for the evening, as it sometimes gets lonely among the graves. Soon after we left to catch Amundstorp in the last moments of the golden hour.

Ekornavallen is an ancient burial ground in the Falköping Municipality in Sweden. Situated in Slafsan River valley, it contains a variety of ancient monuments dating from the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages.

What’s unusual, there were no settlements in the area until the 18th century. As of the late 19th century the area was plowed up, which sadly destroyed many of the precious remains.

Today Ekornavallen contains four passage graves and a gallery grave from the Neolithic period, as well as cairns from the Bronze Age, stone circles, twelve standing stones (bautastenar) – marking the Iron Age burials, eight round stone settings and one triangular stone setting. Many stones are adorned with cup marks too. It is estimated that the field was in use for over a six to seven thousand-year period.

The largest, and best known, grave on a meadow is the Neolithic passage grave Girommen. According to historians the name translates to the giant woman’s oven. It could be a resting place of many individuals, possibly an entire family. The burial chamber is thirteen meters long and two meters wide. It stands on a barely recognizable stone setting that is 37 meters in diameter. All boulders are made of sandstone except for the granite roof stone; probably a glacial erratic from Närke. The grave was restored in the 1940s and some burial offerings such as amber beads, pottery shards and a flint chisel have been found. In recent years the walls has been filled to prevent the passage grave from further collapse.

Sources (access Nov 2021):
1. www.sfv.se/fastigheter/sok/sverige/vastra-gotalands-lan/ekornavallen
2. www.vastsverige.com/en/falkoping/produkter/ekornavallen
3. www.lansstyrelsen.se/vastra-gotaland/besoksmal/kulturmiljoer/ekornavallen.html

Gårdlösaleden

Gårdlösaleden is one of the trails on east coast of Skåne, Österlen. The 12 km loop can be easily taken in one day, in a matter of fact – couple of hours with short breaks is enough. The hike begins in a cozy village of Smedstorp near the train station. Let’s go!

First kilometre is fairly uneventful – I need to walk out of the built-up area first. I take the gravel road that takes me trough pastures. First stop – remains of a stone ship called Alnabjär Skeppssättning (3) are up on a hill. Since it’s missing most of the stones I choose to skip it and head for the “main course” just 1 km away – three stone formations from Iron Age hidden away in a thicket.

Stones rest on a hill; from here I have a view over surrounding corn fields. There is two stone ships and one overgrown stone circle, domarring (4). A bit northwest from here there’s Silverflickans grav (5) – an Iron Age grave of a young women buried along with silver artifacts. Plants growing here are quite suggestive – elder and hawthorn are both the guardians of the Otherworld, while fireweed is a symbol of rebirth.

After enjoying my time with the stones I’m back on the route. Along the main trail there are remains of two limestone quarries – Kalvahagens stenbrott and Stora stenbrottet (6 & 7).

Soon the landscape changes as I enter the small forest with a stream running through. There’s a tiny waterfall too! A couple of meters from the wooden bridge there is a humongous lime kiln (8). Lime used to be transported here from quarries down the road, burned in order to lose weight and turn white, and extinguished with water from the stream.

As I’m out of the forest area, I cross the main road and enter the Listarumsåsen Nature Reserve. It’s so beautiful and quiet. I’m all alone here, just what I was craving for. The trail goes through the whole length of reserve, forest changes along the way – one time there is only spruce, then beeches start to dominate and it gets denser and darker. I pass a peat extraction site from the beginning of XX century (9).

There is also a peculiar Oak growing along the way, marked by a helpful hiker. Why does it stand on two legs is a mystery. Maybe it’s a tree giant, or maybe the hole is a portal to the Otherworld?

After quite some time I finally emerge from the woods. For the next 3 km the trail will lead through fields and pastures, which gives me the opportunity to focus on medicinal plant growing along the way. The abundance of the black mullein and meadowsweet sweeps me from my feet. Next July I’ll definitely come here to pick them for my herbarium, since I can’t locate them in my neighborhood. But there are also plenty of habitats of musk mallow, thistle, burdock, tansy, wild geranium, chicory, wild thyme, St. John’s wort, and I’ve spotted at least one with angelica.

The last stop on a map is Ljungavången Nature Reserve (10) which is a home to rare frog species called onion frog. Since the possibility of meeting one is close to none I decide to head for the train station.

Around the 10th kilometre I enter a small foresty area with, well, a weird theme. Here Santa Claus gnomes are everywhere. Trees are adorned with Christmas decorations, but all of them feature only Jultomten. Not gonna lie this really creeps me out at first, but then I start to get really curious. But so far I didn’t find any compelling backstory to this.

Since I’m late for my train back home, I take a coffee in a local shop and brush off all the bugs that crept on me along the way. I’m tired but my mind is at peace again. It was a good day.

You can find more photos from this hike in my Flickr album.

Fagertofta Burial Ground

Fagertofta burial ground lays north of Nässjö on a banked meadow sheltered by a forest. The area was excavated and restored in 1940s – amost all graves date to the Iron Age. The burial site is also known as Domsätet, due to the presence of dommaringar*, and Hallängen – The Hall Meadow. Never heard of this place before. I’ve discovered it in an old book I’ve got from an antique bookshop.

The grave field contains 42 ancient stone formations varied in form, shape and size. Mostly stone circles (38, including 25 domarringar) but there is also a Bronze Age cairn (for cremation burials) and a mysterious three-armed barrow with an altar. What’s unusual, one of the circles is formed from 6 tiny dolmens, also known as “lying hens”.

By the gravel road leading to the site there is an old sacrificial well, Midsommarkällan. It was used in the past for ritual ablutions during Midsummer celebrations.

We approached the site during a very hot and sunny afternoon, so shooting conditions were far from ideal. I walked around the stones for a while, briefly composing my shots and waiting for clouds to set in. Maybe it was a symptom of a sunstroke, but I swear I could hear the chanting among the dolmen ring coming from the dark forest behind it. The official information leaflet does warn about “playing around” the stones – that can make one ill.

* Domarringar – Stone circles with odd number of stones (usually 7 or 9); often with an additional stone in the middle. The name might came from a medieval view that judge rings were a kind of court places where important decisions were made. With the odd number of stones, a judgment could always pass.

You can find more photos from this location in my Flickr album.

Midsummer ’20 – The Road Trip

  1. Oskarshamn – our trip starts here
  2. Kvilleken – a 1000 y/o oak tree
  3. Ryningsholms Gravfält – Iron Age grave field
  4. Fagertofta Gravfält and Midsommarkällan – Bronze Age grave field and a ritual spring
  5. Jönköping – where we spent the first night; great view over Lake Vättern
  6. Luttra Dolmen – truly majestic neolithic tomb
  7. Kyrkerörs Gånggrift and Ballersten – a neolithic passage grave and a stone with cup marks
  8. Silverfallet in Karlsfors – a small nature reserve with waterfalls
  9. Iron Wolf’s MC – pretty self-explanatory; not marked
  10. Askeberga Skeppssättning – stone ship build out of humongous stones
  11. Haga and Lunneslätt Dolmens – hidden in the mossy forest on beautiful Orust Island
  12. Trollhättan – we spent second and third night here
  13. Vitlycke Museum in Tanumshede – lots of petroglyphs here
  14. Greby Gravfält – biggest grave field in Bohuslän
  15. Ulmekärr Labyrinth – one of the best preserved Trojaborg labyrinths in Sweden
  16. Blomsholms Skeppssättning – a picturesque stone ship; as far north as we’ve got
  17. Hällristningar in Massleberg – a small panel with carvings hidden over the road
  18. Massleberg Dolmen – a neolithic tomb resting in the shade
  19. Hällristningar in Massleberg II – gigantic stone panel with very spectacular carvings laying on a slope
  20. Älgafallet – amazing waterfall on a border with Norway
  21. Nässjö – the butthole of Småland? I take it back now!

This road trip took us roughly 4 days. I’ve actually planned a lot (too much?) for us to see on our honey-moon-midsummer-road-trip. Some places didn’t work out – mostly waterfalls and some stone circles. Some other were a surprise as we’ve discovered them by accident. Extremely hot and sunny weather was perfect for a trip, though a bit tiring I’d say, but not so perfect for shooting. Everything went better than expected, we had a lot of fun and I’ve brought plenty of photos home. The greatest trip ever!