ÖLAND
in MAY
Suddenly the
lilacs are out and I am reminded of our stay on Öland almost twenty years ago
when all the lilacs in the gardens there were a glorious froth of blossom. We stayed
in a holiday cottage belonging to old friends of ours. Daughter Kim and her husband Gwydion and
Robbie their son, then three years old, came too.
Öland is a long
narrow island in the Baltic Sea, just off the SE coast of Sweden across a 6km long bridge from Kalmar.
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Oland is the long narrow island just off the coast from Kalmar.
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We drove there, by
a combination of ferries and road, camping in the Swedish forests on our way.
Sweden has a relaxed view about wild camping and it is permitted, even
welcomed. It was Rob’s first experience of sleeping in a tent and brewing up
over a little camp fire and he loved it. What a shame he was too young to
remember anything but the name of the Dana Gloria, the big North Sea ferry
which impressed him so much.
Robbie waking up after his first night’s wild camping. The tent was dismantled round
him!
The island, about 135kms from north to south and about 16 kms across, is served by a peripheral road running
round the coast and a few roads going across. Frank and Marlies’ house was on the edge of the small village of
Åkerby Lopperstad near the east coast.
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Frank and Marlies' house in Lopperstad.
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From
log 20.05.03 (M.)....we reached the house without any difficulty thanks to Frank
and Marlies’ map. Quickly unloaded and sorted out. It is a pleasant wooden
house, painted light grey and with a red-tiled mansard roof in about half an
acre and with extensive outbuildings.
We
had a cuppa and then a leisurely walk back up the road to unwind and look at
the plants and the birds. The roadside is fairly open with short turf on sandy soil
and opposite the house a small pine wood with an understorey of Gooseberry and
Fly Honeysuckle bushes.
Then
we came to a few houses and a farm or two. The houses are mostly fairly small
with burnt sienna painted walls and neat gardens with lilac bushes.
Heard
the clear loud song of what we first took to be Nightingale in the wood, but
later realized was a Thrush Nightingale perched high up in the trees. Abundant
Pasque Flowers with lots of tiny Forget-me-nots, cresses , Rock Rose and Meadow
Saxifrage (Fair Maids of France).
We
went into one of the little windmills we had been seeing frequently along the
road coming here, and walked round the standing stones of an Iron Age burial
ground. There are about 40 around here, some earlier barrows, and apparently ashes and
some pottery shards have been found here too. Also found a delightful Linnets’ nest
with three little speckled eggs in a Juniper bush. The high ladder stiles over
the fences have a little gate at the top to stop sheep climbing up and over I
suppose. Good idea. The sheep are fairly small and leggy with short curly
fleeces of fine wool in various shades from whitish through grey to black.
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The windmill at Lopperstad.
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The southern part
of the island is designated a World Heritage Site because of the medieval
layout of the villages, still the same to this day.
The road ran along a low ridge
with the farms alongside. Their red or white-painted barns are built along the road with a central gate opening to the
farmyard with more barns each side of the yard and the house faces into the
yard on the far side. The very extensive barns to house stock, fodder and
machinery in the harsh winters, are sometimes thatched with an extra ridge
strengthened with cross-pieces of wood and elegantly carved ‘crow posts’ to
deter evil spirits at the ends.
From
log 24.5.03 T....Stopped partway down to
Triborg Moss to look at the birds. There was some open water with marshy
margins. Lots of Black-headed Gulls nesting on little islets had first
attracted our attention. We could stand back on a grassy bank and look through
the bushes and trees at the water some thirty yards away. There were Coot,
Tufted Duck, Pochard and Shelduck and best of all lovely views of a beautiful
Slavonian Grebe, stunning in his breeding plumage. with bushy black and golden cheek tufts. We only see them at home in their
quiet winter dress.
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The lake with Slavonian Grebes.
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Slavonian Grebes in full breeding plumage.
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Later
we turned North to look at the church at Resmo. Like all of them here it was
rather a plain, whitewashed building with a tower at the west end, in a
beautifully kept graveyard. We took it in turns to go in, as Robbie was
sleeping in the car. The early church on the site dated from 1000 AD and it was
altered and extended over the centuries. Very plain inside but with traces of
medieval paintings on the walls.
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The little church at Resmo.
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Stopped
for a few items at a small shop on the way home. Gwyd did the talking as thanks
to his musical ear he was able already to pick up a bit of, to us an
incomprehensible language, and make himself understood.
The central Stora Alvaret. This area of limestone pavement, the most
extensive in Europe is open and bleak, dotted with small bushes of Juniper and
Birch. The thin soils overlay a reddish limestone bedrock with turf studded with
flowers including masses of Orchids (yellow and magenta forms of Elder-flowered
Orchid, Burnt, Military, Early Purple.....) pink Everlasting, yellow Milk Vetch, a little yellow Tulip, Twayblade
leaves and a host of other species.
From
log 25.5.03 M... we left the car and walked all morning on the Alvar. The
Junipers were smoking every time you brushed past them, they were shedding so
much pollen. We’ve seen Yew do this at home. Robbie had a lovely time smiting
them with his stick. Quite a few handsome Rose Chafers about.
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Rose Chafer on Dropwort.
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We
stopped for our picnic by a wet place, which came as a surprise. The water
issued from between rocks and ran away to a little stream and disappeared under
more junipers. It was very clear and a small pool had little black tadpoles and
large black leeches, one of which came out in pursuit of Robbie! It reminded
Kim and I of the little ones in the Malaysian jungle which gave Kim and I the
heeby jeebies. You didn’t know they had got you till you felt the blood run
down your leg from where they had fastened onto you!
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Picnic on the Alvar with Tree Pipits, Birds-eye Primroses and leeches.
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There
were numerous Lesser Whitethroats around and a good view of a Cuckoo and a Red-backed Shrike. Skylarks sang overhead.
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Clump of Pulsatillas or Pasque Flowers.
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Elder-flowered Orchid
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Small yellow Tulip.
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Red-backed Shrike.
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Coastal fields
From log, M.....After tea
one evening we walked from Akerby just up the road, and down a track to the
sea. It was a couple of miles between long narrow fields divided by rounded
boulders of gneiss, granite, basalt (all abandoned by the ancient ice sheet) as
well as slabs of the native limestone. No grazing, it was all spring corn and a
grass/lucerne mix for fodder. Hares, Whinchats, Skylarks,Yellowhammers; quite a
few Shelduck grazing, then Oystercatchers, Redshank and Ringed Plover as we got
nearer the sea. Nearer the sea the ground was uncultivated and a few young cattle were
grazing. A few Cranes were feeding in a damp place, Greylag Geese flew over and
a great Sea Eagle flew over as it patrolled the shore. At the coast was a small
group of red-ochre-painted fishermen’s huts all very neat and well kept but
still looking closed up, as if they hadn’t yet woken up from winter. The land
just gently merged into the water, with rounded granite rocks running out into
the shallows. Lots of Mute Swans and Eider. It was a long walk for Robbie but
he managed most of it. His ‘trailer’, a stick pulled along behind him, making a squiggly mark in
the sandy soil, keeps him going for miles!
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The Jackdaws were bothering the nesting Lapwings and the Hare was chasing them.
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Going down the track to the coast.
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| The land just gently merged with the sea. |
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A Sea Eagle was patrolling the shore.
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Flowery Meadows and Wood Pastures
From
the log, M.....We decided to go northwards today. We passed several meadows
full of Cowslips. Never seen such a show. We stopped up a track for our
elevenses. Here it was Hazel coppice with standard trees of Oak and Ash. Below
were more cowslips, Solomon’s Seal. Yellow Anemones. Herb Paris and a wealth of
other flowers and lots of fungi that looked like Morels.
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Yellow Anemones.
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Toadstool like a Morel.
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Robbie
and I found a Wood Warblers’ nest in the bottom of a hazel bush. The bird flew
off a few yards and we peeped in to see the little speckled eggs.
Further
up the road we came across a Nature Reserve in more of the wood pasture. Quite
a few people about here. R. was upset that we wouldn’t let him pick the flowers
here. I told him that if everyone picked, there wouldn’t be any for other
people to look at and enjoy or take photos. He pointed out that no-one had
cameras! How do you deal with the logic of a three-year-old? He was soon
diverted by the pretty pink flowers he found next and was amused by their long
scientific name Cardamine hexadactyla!
These woodlands on calcareous damp soils are a feast of flowers. The
nearest I’ve ever come across in the UK is Wolves’ Wood in Suffolk, and some of
the woods in France.
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Wood Pasture.
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There were numbers
of archaeological remains all over the island. Great numbers of granite
boulders marked grave sites, the most striking were the ‘boat burials'.
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Stones marking a 'Boat Burial' dating from about 900AD
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Here and there was
a ‘Rune Stone’ with the inscriptions now picked out in red paint.
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Robbie reading the runes!
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From log May 26th T....We went to Ismansdorp and walked a short way along a track
through scrubby woodland till we came out to a wood pasture with carpets of orchids and
cowslips and in one place more of the lovely yellow tulips. Visible through the
trees was the tumbled stone of a wall surrounding an Iron Age fort. It had
obviously at one time been a very considerable structure. Inside it was stepped
but the outer side was a vertical face about ten feet high. Roughly circular,
the enclosure was 130 metres across (I paced it) and we calculated, after much
discussion and re-working of our maths, that it was about a hectare in area.
There were several well-constructed openings in the outer wall. The interior
was almost entirely divided up into rectangular enclosures some 7 by 20 metres
, which we felt was generous for habitation but perhaps also housed stock and fodder stores. There were alleyways
between groups of these enclosures and the outer compartments backed direct
onto the surrounding wall. A most impressive and intriguing place.
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Aerial view of the Iron-age fort at Ismansdorp.
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From log a couple of days later. T...Then on to the Iron Age Fort at Ektorps Borg. This has been
considerably restored, the outer wall re-built to 20ft high with battlements on
top. Inside, the wall is stepped like that at Ismansdorp, and there are three
entrances, the main one though a towering archway. Don’t know how much the restoration
is conjectural. But it is thought that in the Iron Age in places there was
considerable Roman influence, for example the portcullis. Inside there were
various styles of dwellings, storehouses and animal housing which had been built
on the original foundation walls and employing various construction methods and
styles of roof covering. The buildings back onto the outer ring wall and are
radially arranged with common side walls. Mary expressed doubts about the
practicality of this arrangement...what happens about the rainwater which would
collect in the valleys between the adjacent roofs?
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Thatched dwellings within Ektorp Iron-age fort
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Some
of the woodwork and construction of the houses and furniture was fascinating,
especially the arrangements for penning of the animals.
The
fort was extensively excavated in the 1960s and three stages of development and
occupation have been uncovered dating from early Iron Age to the post and plank
walls of the early medieval which are still used today!
One
building of stone and thatch was a museum with some of the 25000 finds from the
excavation (including three tonnes of bones!). There were models of the three
stages and it seems as if the forts were largely to protect the property and
family of the larger local farmers although it seems as if there was also some
military presence in the third phase.
There
were several staff around dressed in medieval costume and demonstrating various
crafts to a group of school children who were also dressed up. Another group
was playing a game tossing horseshoes, and yet another was grinding corn and
making damper. Robbie liked the hen-house with delightful hanging nest boxes of
woven willow. Roaming around were two primitive-looking pigs and some small
horned sheep and a few poultry. Robbie made great friends with the pigs.
Though
it was all a reconstruct, it was interesting to see how it might have been, but
we were glad to have been to Ismansdorp first with its ancient and rather
special atmosphere, whereas this place was disconcertingly like a film set with
its newly quarried stone and dressed up ‘inhabitants’. Yet it was fascinating
and informative.
The two week visit went all too quickly, leaving lots of
places un-visited and places we would have liked to go to again. We were so
pleased that our very good friends Frank and Marlies had opened up their house
for us and we were able to reciprocate a little by tending their garden and
doing a few house repair jobs. Sadly, they have both subsequently died but live
on in our memories with many shared experiences over so many years.
Our journey back
through southern Sweden and Denmark, with another good wild camp, completed a
very enjoyable holiday.
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Evening walk on way home through the Swedish forests.
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| Last Camp. |
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THANK YOU KIM FOR YOUR DRAWINGS.
Blogs I follow:
www.musingsfromhigherdowngateandelsewhere.blogspot.com
www.downgatebatman.blogspot.com
www.northcornwallnaturalist.blogspot.com
