Mästocka ljunghed, Naturreservat

Visiting the moors of Mästocka is a journey back in time. You get an idea of how magnificent, desolate and yet beautiful the former moorland of Halland once was. On an early spring morning, you may be lucky enough to hear the grouse playing.

Sten Selander describes the heather in his book Det levande landskapet i Sverige: "Nowhere does the heather sea have the free horizon that gave the Halland landscape such grandeur and breadth and together with the heather's changing color - brown with a touch of red and olive green in spring and early summer, muted red-violet in autumn - created its poor, poignant grandeur."

Two marked paths

Several natural viewpoints in the reserve offer beautiful views of the moor. There are two marked trails in the reserve with small information signs that tell you more about the area. Björsjörundan is 2.3 kilometers long and has blue markings on the posts. The short loop is 700 meters long and has yellow markings. The Hallandsleden trail also runs through the area.

As there are grazing animals in the reserve for most of the year, it is forbidden to bring dogs or horses within fenced areas during the period April 1 to December 1.

Collect stamps

In some of our most popular reserves, you can also collect a nice stamp when you visit the reserve. You stamp either directly in your guidebook or on your own paper/book. In Mästocka ljunghed, the stamp can be found at the parking lot of the bathing area.

The diversity of the heath

Many of the plants and animals found here have been associated with the heathland's plant communities for at least a couple of thousand years. Halland's landscape flower is the heather gorse. It blooms in June and then Mästocka heath can glow golden yellow from its flowers. Later in the autumn, the heath turns purple with heather. On the west coast, the marsh marigold is rare, but it grows here as well as cat's-foot, haymaking and cypress.

Black grouse are found in the reserve all year round, and if you are lucky you may see them playing in the early spring mornings. Woodlark, meadow pipit and skylark thrive on the heath, and the woodland hare likes to eat the young plants that sprout when the heath is recently burned.

Several rare species of butterflies live here, such as the hedge sparrow. Hairstreak acts as a host plant for this and several other butterfly larvae. Bumblebees and bees collect nectar throughout the season, which in the fall can result in dark heather honey for the bees.

The heather was used for grazing

During the 17th and 18th centuries, open heather moors spread in Halland at the expense of the forest, which was used for firewood, timber and potash burning. Grazing animals went out for large parts of the year and heather was also burned to produce better grazing. The land was overexploited and by 1850 a third of Halland consisted of heather moorland. This was one of the environmental problems of the time. Mästocka heather moor has been preserved since the time when the moor stretched from the coast and far inland.

Mullets and fires preserve

Everything that grows and lives on the heath depends on our continued use of it. The land is grazed (there are Highland Cattle in the northern pasture) and every seven years or so we burn the heath so that the heather doesn't get too old and be rejected by the grazing animals. The reserve was extended in 2017 with new land to the south-west, from 71 hectares to 156 hectares.

Swimming in the nearby lake

If you feel like a swim, there is a bathing area with a jetty at Björsjön, just outside the reserve. Here you can also collect a nice stamp. You stamp either directly in your guidebook or on your own paper/book. The stamp can be found in the parking lot at the bathing area.