Byrums Raukar

Raukar are what is left when waves cut away softer limestone and leave the harder cores standing, and Byrum has the only substantial field of them on Oland - about a hundred and twenty pillars along a few hundred metres of shore, up to four metres high, in odd mushroom and column shapes. They were cut by a sea level higher than the present one, in the period after the ice when the Baltic stood differently, so they are now above the waterline on a shingle and slab beach. Gotland has larger fields of the same formation. The area, about three hectares, has been a nature reserve since 1935. Sunset light from the west side is the standard photograph and the reason people time a visit late.

Highlights

• About a hundred and twenty stacks - along a few hundred metres.
• Mushroom and column shapes - harder cores left standing.
• Cut by a higher post-glacial sea - now above the waterline.
• A west-facing shore - which is why sunset is the moment.

When to go

May to September; late afternoon for the light. An hour and a half.

Practical notes

The site is small and the visit short. Summer evenings crowd it for photographs. The shore is slab and shingle, hard walking. There are no facilities beyond a car park.

Nearby

Trollskogen is north-east; Borgholm is south.

Key facts