Breathtaking views and deep forests

Enjoy dramatic scenery and varied nature

In the Vedema hiking area, you will encounter a changing nature with many different types of trees. Lingonberry and heather grow in the dry pine forest. In the dark spruce forest, not much survives but mosses, including comb moss and sedge moss. In the valleys you are met by deciduous forests of beech, oak, birch and aspen.

The ancient rock that is 70 million years old

The entire roaming area is located on Hörjaåsen, a horst that was formed 70 million years ago. Long narrow blocks of bedrock were pushed up between two fault lines, while the surrounding ground sank. Traces of the Ice Age are found everywhere in the area. Both the moraine that covers the area, the rolling stone slopes south and north of Barsjön and the lake itself were created when the ice melted. Feel free to look for signs in the landscape and use the map with markings to help. Today, the landscape is hilly and the slopes are steep. Most dramatic is the nature around the primeval rock cliff Vedema hall, a heavily hilly forest area on primeval rock with mighty steep slopes. The bedrock consists of gneiss, which is common throughout northeastern Scania.

Take the binoculars to Vedema hall

The view from Vedema hall is breathtakingly beautiful. Up at the top, which is 103 m high, you get a mile-long view of the Scanian forests. You can hike up to the viewpoint on an unmarked path that is steep in parts with the help of a rope. There is also a small unmarked path along the slope. Upstairs in the Vedema hall, there are tables and benches to sit down at, but no barbecue area. Bring the trangia kitchen!

Discover the nature of Rökeån

Around Rökeån, the vegetation is almost tropical with ferns, acacia and exciting plants. In the spring, the yellow kabbeleka blooms and, if you're lucky, you can catch a glimpse of the greenish-white night violet orchid. It is possible to swim in the slightly deeper parts of Rökeån.

Stones with stories to tell

Vedema probably got its name from the fields, i.e. lands, that were along the river - "by the fields along the river". There are still traces of the people who lived here once in a time. Ruins of small crofts are hidden everywhere and the cultivation piles and the stone fence show where the land was farmed during the 18th and 19th centuries. Typical of Vedema are all the earthen embankments that run through the forest and which formed boundaries or were fences for the domestic animals. At Rökeån there are the remains of an old mill. Right next to it was a gristmill, a sawmill and a wad mill.

Hike to the milestone in Jontustorp south of Vedema

Milestones or quartering posts can be found everywhere in the Swedish forests. They began to be placed after the establishment of the Gästgivarordning in 1649. Along the roads and at a certain distance there would be establishments for travelers, where they could get food, accommodation and opportunities to change horses. The milestones became a kind of distance measurement to the next establishment. The first milestones were set up one mile apart (one mile was 10,688 meters at the time). Later, mileposts were set up after every quarter of a mile (2,672 m), which is why they were also called quartering posts. On the poles are the designations 1/4 mil, 1/2 mil, 3/4 mil and 1 mil. At Jontustorp, south of the walking area along the Skåneleden, there is a milestone with the inscription 1/4.

Vedema's forest was planted by a "forest hero"

The planting of the Vedema forest followed in the footsteps of merchant Otto Daniel Krook's donation to the county council in Skåne. He lived in the 19th century and saw how Skåne's forests disappeared without new ones being planted. In 1873 he donated money for the purchase of land and the planting of forests. The O D Krooks Donation foundation in L-län owns the land in the Vedema roaming area, and we at the Scanian Landscape Foundation look after and manage the land.