Mölleryd, Naturreservat

The Mölleryd nature reserve is an unexploited part of Johannishusåsarna. Mölleryd is located about 2 kilometers west of Johannishus Castle. The reserve consists of a wooded pebble ridge with great geoscientific values.

The four nature reserves in the area, Arvidstorp, Skuremåla, Mölleryd and Johannishus Ridges, can be viewed in context, as a landscape of great geological interest. For a better understanding of the impact of the ice sheet on the landscape, you can study the four reserves during a tour.

Landscape shaped by the ice sheet

In the region, the land ice began melting around 14,500 years ago and the highest coastline of the dammed Baltic Ice Lake was 65 meters above current sea level. The nature reserves are examples of various river and delta formations that were created when the ice sheet melted.

Möllerydsåsen is an approximately 3-kilometer-long ridge-shaped pebble ridge that extends in a north-south direction. The ridge is an ice river deposit formed in an ice tunnel or in an open ice fissure where the moraine material in the form of sand, gravel and stone has been transported, sorted and deposited by the meltwater from the ice sheet.

Wooded pebble ridge

The ridge is forested and surrounded by fields, pastures and coniferous forest. The southern part, which is below the highest coastline, is flat and sparsely covered with pine. To the north, the ridge becomes more ridge-like, as it has never been swollen by the sea. It reaches a height of over 10 meters above the surrounding terrain.

On the eastern side, up to Äskekärret, there is a mixed forest of oak and spruce with some hazel. Large, wide-crowned oaks and beeches testify to a more open landscape in the past.