Torsburgen, Naturreservat

At Torsburgen you can see one of the largest ancient castles in the Nordic region, as well as what a forest area looks like after a major forest fire. You can also find several rare plants.

Torsburgen Nature Reserve is located directly northwest of the Herrgårdsklint Nature Reserve. Torsburgen is one of Gotland's mightiest inland cliffs - the plateau on top of the castle has an area of 1.2 square kilometers, and the highest point is just over 71 meters above sea level. To the west, north and east, Torsburgen is bordered by 10-25 meter high cliffs. On the north-western slope there are several caves, of which "Burglädu" is the deepest (16 meters).

Large parts of the plateau are occupied by rocky outcrops or land with only a thin layer of soil. In early July 1992, large parts of Torsburgen were affected by an extensive forest fire. Despite major efforts by the emergency services, the military and volunteers, it took several days before the fire could be stopped. By then, a 10 square kilometer forest area had been burned. In Torsburgen itself, the fire affected almost all the forest in the central and northern parts. However, from a nature conservation point of view, the fire was positive in some respects - many animals, plants and fungi benefit from forest fires, and some species of bark and wood-dwelling insects live almost exclusively on burnt trees.

The 1992 forest fire was not the first at Torsburgen, however. When Linnaeus visited Torsburgen in the summer of 1741, he noted that the plateau was almost completely devoid of forest, "for accidental fire had long since consumed it". The "accidental fire" that Linnaeus refers to is probably the large forest fire that ravaged significant parts of Alskog, Ala, Ardre and Kräklingbo parishes in the summer of 1655.

Torsburgen has long been known as a habitat for several plants that are rare in our country, such as oxeye daisy, yellow crownwort, Gotland saxifrage and thyme helleborine. Other interesting plants at Torsburgen are the spice plant spearmint, which here has one of its richest occurrences on Gotland, as well as the orchids red wood lily and knotweed.