Stora Alvaret

The alvar is limestone bedrock with almost no soil over it - a few centimetres in places, bare rock in others - which means trees cannot establish, and the result is around two hundred and sixty square kilometres of open steppe-like ground unlike anything else in northern Europe. Grazing has kept it open since the Stone Age and continues; without stock it would scrub over. The flora is the reason people come: orchids, rock-rose, and species otherwise found in the Alps or on the steppe, flowering in a short burst in late May and June. The southern Oland agricultural landscape as a whole is on the World Heritage list for this continuity of use.

What you actually see

• Bare limestone with almost no soil - which is why no trees grow.
• Around 260 square kilometres of open ground - grazed since the Stone Age.
• Orchids and steppe species - flowering in late May and June.
• A listed farmed landscape - the whole of southern Oland.

When to go

Late May to June for the flowering. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Outside the flowering weeks it reads as a flat empty plain. There is no shade or shelter. Walking on the alvar is rough and wet in spring. It is grazing land - stock and fences are everywhere.

Nearby

Eketorp fortress is south; Morbylanga is on the west coast.