Southern Öland

I had one full week in Öland, so I knew I would have ample time to fully explore and comprehend this somewhat elusive WHS. My ancestors are from 2 small villages Northeast of Borholm. Moreover, since this was Midsummer, one of the most important holidays in Sweden, I was fairly busy meeting relatives, celebrating the holiday, visiting grave sites, and exploring the Northern portion of the Island via my cousins car.

Late June gave me nearly 18 hours of daylight, and at 8am I left Borholm for a truly all-day trip to every key portion of the inscribed area of Southern Öland. This took much research, including reading the vague nomination file, which rarely identifies specific sites and the pictures are hardly visible (captions). Here is a list of key places to help the would be traveller; there are indeed many more, but these are the major sites I visited.

Iron Age landscapes

- Gettlinge Grave Field

- Mysinge Grave Field

- Eketorp Fortress (reconstructed above foundations)

Viking Age

- Karlevi Runestone

Middle Ages

- Resmo Church

- Line Villages (Southeastern Öland, Nasby to Kvinneby)

- Gammalsby Coastlands (Sjomark)

Royal Hunting Reserve (17th Century)

- King Karl X Gustav 's Wall (1653)

- Ottenbylund (hunting reserve)

Industrial Age (18-19th Century)

- Alum Works in Degerhamn (Södra Bruket)

- Långe Jan Lighthouse

Stora Alvaret (Hike)

- Möckelmossen

Ramsar Sites

- Öland, eastern coastal areas (Gammalsby)

- Ottenby

This day trip lasted until about 10pm. My fellow travelers did …

I visited this WHS in July 2016. I drove here from Vaxjo and after crossing the bridge to the island I stopped on the right to pick up some information brochures and maps. It was really a wise thing to do as the interesting sites are not visible on most GPS navigators and are only marked with a brown sign along the road. However, any resting spot, hotel or windmill might have the same brown sign so without a map you might miss worthwhile stops. Hopefully, now that I've been there I can give some pointers on what in my opinion is worth visiting and the names you should be on the lookout for. I inputted Ottenby Nature Reserve on my GPS and drove along the outermost road with the flat Stora Alvaret on one side (a limestone habitat of several rare and endangered species) and the Baltic Sea on the other. The Stora Alvaret landscape is nowadays an agricultural landscape with several mounds and burial stones here and there. Aesthetically it reminded me a lot of Hvar, Croatia or Terceira in the Azores. Oland is the second largest island in Sweden so expect to drive for an hour or so to get to the southernmost tip but you'll be stopping along the way and walking for quite a bit so plan at least half a day to scratch the surface. I cannot understand why such a site has not been inscribed as a mixed site because it clearly has …

I drove to Öland from Karlskrona, which takes about 1.5 hours. The bridge from the mainland to Öland was fairly busy with tourist traffic, and lots of caravans and campervans. The north of the island is said to be a popular holiday destination. I had come for the south of the island of course, as that's where the WH lies. The core zone however comprises about 1/3 of the island, so just after leaving the bridge and turning to the right, I started seeing WH signs.

I had no clear plan of what to see and did not know what to expect of it either. "Looks like Holland" is not why I came all the way down here for a Saturday. But already from the beginning, there were lots of cute little windmills by the side of the road. They are much smaller than their Dutch counterparts. 62 have been preserved, though none of them are in use anymore.

Other iconic sights in Öland are the bronze age and iron age burial sites. Just like the mills, they are conveniently close to the main road southwards down to Ottenby. Every site has a small parking lot and an information panel, most of the time in Swedish, German and English. The most impressive burial site that I visited was the Gettlinge burial ground, which is an example of the "stone ship" burial custom where stone slabs surrounding a grave are laid out in the outline of a ship.

…

When I read guidebook's review on Oland, I was curious with their wordings "haunted beautiful", the words that in my opinion a very strange way to summarize certain place; however, I could not agree more with the wordings they chose after I saw this place. From the historic city of Kalmar, I rented a car and drove to Oland, while most of tourists turned left to the north part of the island for beach and cultural villages; I easily decided to turn right to the opposite direction where the World Heritage Sites located, the agricultural landscape of Southern Oland.

At first the flat landscape of farmland was quite Dutch nostalgic with many windmills, large red farmhouses and light forests, then the landscape changed to green hill with stonewall and many impressive standing stone of Viking tombs against the misty sky that made mystery or maybe spooky aura, a landscape that not so Swedish at all! After the strange farmland area, I was at the Stora Alvaret, a large limestone plain; the area looked very dry compared to other area on the island. The stone plain was full of dry savannah-liked grass with some bush and wildflowers, another odd landscape of this island. I continued to finish my trip at Ottenby which was the most southern spot of this island. The area was the desert landscape of peat, hundreds of mosses covered rock and Baltic Sea that were merged together into some kind of a weirdly bog wetland that …

In my 2 weeks in Sweden, this was the most interesting WH site I have come across. The landscape of the Stora Alvaret is unique and fascinating, like nothing I had ever seen before. A barren limestone plateau, it covers the southern half of Öland and combines many historic sites with unique natural features (I think it should be a mixed WH site). Driving or cycling is probably the best way to explore Öland, but public transport is also an option. I took the bus from Kalmar (a great city by the way, with a fantastic castle and a nice old town) across the impressive Öland Bridge to the pretty port of Färjestaden. From there I went to Eketorp, an interesting Iron Age fortification that is today a major tourist attraction. Next I went to the Ottenby Nature Reserve on the southern tip of the island, which features a wide range of habitats for migrating birds - and I also climbed Scandinavia's tallest lighthouse there. I thought this was the most interesting place I saw on Öland. Taking the bus is a bit complicated, because even in summer, they don't run very often, but with a bit of planning, it works out fine, and many interesting landscape features can be admired just as easily from the bus.

There are several buses that cross the bridge from Kalmar to Oland. I took a #103 bound for Ottenby, and returned on a #105. Along the way I passed several ancient earthworks, stone walls and circles and a number of old windmills while crossing the flat arable landscape. At Eketorp I visited the castle and then the Ottenby Nature Reserve near the lighthouse.

I stopped off at Gronhogen for lunch and to inspect a windmill and some walls and earthworks near the harbour, but there was nothing by way of explanation of what they represented.

Although the words (I mean the description of the monument) are there, they do not say anything. You should see the immense alvar yourselves - incredibly flat limestone plateau of Southern Oland. I hope, they included also the fairytale Midlandsskogen (Middle Earth Forest) with the misterious Ismantorps borg - strange, abandoned limestone city with seven gates. The city is located in middle of this huge beach and oak forest.