Sillnäs, Naturreservat

Sillnäs nature reserve is located on one of Listerlandet's headlands in the coastal area of western Blekinge. Here you can experience a varied nature with deciduous forests, wetlands, pastures and coastal water areas. Sillnäs is a popular destination for hikers, birdwatchers and recreational fishermen.
Sillnäs has very high natural values associated with beech-dominated broadleaf forests, hazel groves and swamp forests as well as open and wooded pastures. Along parts of the beaches, the broadleaf forest meets the sea in characteristic Blekinge fashion.

Forests with high natural values

The broadleaf forests are dominated by beech and there are plenty of old, coarse trees, as well as a lot of dead wood. Interspersed in the forests are swamps and small waters. The forests are rich in species and there are many red-listed species and species that signal high natural values and long forest continuity. One example is the woodruff, which Blekinge has a special responsibility to preserve. Amphibians thrive in the wetlands.

The coastal waters off the beaches are dominated by species-rich hard bottoms with extensive seaweed belts. These are important habitats for many fish and other marine animal species. The nature reserve's land and water areas also attract many breeding and resting birds.

Centuries-old pastures

Sillnäs' open and wooded pastures have been grazed for several hundred years and are home to a wide range of vascular plants, fungi and insects that are dependent on continued grazing. The pastures are very varied, ranging from dry heathy sandy soils in the north, through open grasslands with a rich floral flora and wooded pastures, down to seashore meadows along the coastline in the south and west. The nature reserve also contains a small hay meadow with a number of species favored by haymakers.

An ice age tail

Sillnäs has exciting geology. The headland is part of a drumlin formation and a leeward moraine, a "tail", to the nearby mountains Mörby backe and Hjärthalla. Without these mountains and the ice ages of the last few million years, when ice worked, broke off and transported away rock material, not much of the nature reserve's land areas would exist today. The bedrock of Sillnäs is below today's sea level. On top of the mountain are 10-20 meter thick layers of soil, moraine, transported there by the ice. Today, the highest point of the cape rises about 10 meters above sea level.

After the last ice age, the shorelines of the Baltic Sea have varied greatly. At Sillnäs there are clear fossil shorelines after a Baltic Sea stage, the Litorina Sea, when the water was at most about 7.5 meters higher than today.

Settlement in the Stone Age

Sillnäs is located in a rich cultural area with a long history. In the northern part of the nature reserve there are traces of a large settlement area from the transition between the hunter-gatherer and farming Stone Age. It is connected to the nearby settlement complex "Siretorp's sand hills", which is of national interest.

In later centuries, up to the 19th-century land reforms, Sillnäs served as outlying land for the village of Istaby. The area was then used as pasture, wood and timber supplies and for cultivating temporary fields, so-called "happas". There have also been a few crofts and outbuildings on the headland. An impressive, 600-meter-long lane still stretches through the area, from north to south. In the forest, there are sealed trenches from the Second World War and on an island in the south stands a small lighthouse.

The nature reserve is a popular visitor area and it is relatively easy to walk. The path leads straight down to the southern part of the headland. There are also some crossings and smaller paths in the area. Most of the nature reserve is grazed, divided into 3-4 different pastures.