Nature

Keep your binoculars handy! Krankesjön Lake is a first-class, internationally renowned bird sanctuary. The maximum depth is 2 metres and the lake is surrounded by vast reed belts. Bird towers and hides make spotting easy. Different species of toads, frogs and newts also thrive here. 

Krankesjön Lake is a part of Vombsänkan, a flatland nestled between the horsts of Romeleåsen Ridge and Linderödsåsen Ridge. Travelling along an old railway embankment, you have wide open views over the lake and wetlands. There are also many water-filled peat extraction pits and wet woodlands. 

At Torna Hällestad the trail takes you along a network of eskers, or ridges of rubble deposited when glaciers retreated thousands of years ago. The eskers are now covered in flourishing pastures and beech forest, including a stand of ancient rare dwarf beeches with twisted and contorted trunks and gnarly branches. Keep an eye out for pasque flowers and orchids.

At the southern end of your hike, you climb a horst – the Romeleåsen Ridge, one of the largest in Skåne and covered primarily with beech forest, but also with areas of spruce.

Cultural History

Take a detour into Torna Hällestad and visit the medieval church from the 1100s. Don’t miss the three Hällestad rune stones incorporated into the church walls. The stones were raised during the Viking period, between 900 and 1000 CE, and commemorate the bravery of Toke and Arre. The village itself is probably medieval.

The Revingefältet military exercise area is impressive. Created in 1888 as a training area for the infantry, it later became Sweden’s main tank training area. Transport of tanks to the Revingehed Swedish military regiment kept the railway alive until the early 1980s. But today, only hikers use it. 

Skåne was one of the counties with the most country estates in Scandinavia and Björnstorp Manor is from the 1700s. The estate was early to embrace the planting wave and started as early as 1880 to replant bare areas with trees. The park here, started by nobleman Adolf Fredrik Barnekow in 1761, is open for visitors. The enormous gardening project probably ruined him, and he lived penniless in the manor for much of his life. 

You can take a unique detour at Björnstorp. How about peddling a railway trolley along tracks to Veberöd and back through a mixed landscape: sometimes through forest, and sometimes with wide open views of the Romeleåsen Ridge - a true ecotourism experience.

Near the end of your walk, at Ugglarp, you pass one of the largest stone ship settings in Skåne. Known as Jättagraven, it is an example of an early Scandinavian burial custom, where the grave or cremation was surrounded by large, erected stone slabs, in this case 39, to form the outline of a ship. These stone ships vary in size and were erected from 1000 BCE to 1000 CE approximately. Allow the silence and strangeness of this place to help you imagine the pagan rituals that may have taken place here.