Helgedomen, Naturreservat

In the Helgedomen nature reserve you will find some of Örebro County's oldest, strongest and tallest pine trees. The oldest are 350 years old, which is very unusual in our county.

Sacrificial stone for road users

As early as the 1930s, foresters at the then Royal Domain Board considered the area to have great qualities and had the Shrine protected as a domain reserve. Since 1996, the site has been a nature reserve. The reserve consists of a mosaic landscape of pine mire with spruce and coniferous forest with rice and lichens. The southwestern part of the area is mostly unaffected by forestry, while some clearing has taken place along the highway. The reserve is home to woodpeckers and owls, such as the tawny owl and the pearl owl. The capercaillie is also a characteristic species for this type of forest. The name Helgedomen is thought to come from ancient times when travelers left gifts at a sacrificial stone to protect themselves from robbers. There is an old sacrificial stone just north of the reserve. There are no paths in the area, but the ground is easy to walk on. The highway also runs through the reserve. There is also a cast iron milestone with the inscription "Ramsberg 1 mil 1766". A nice tour can be to start in the southwestern part and slowly walk north along the road towards the parking lot.

Old growth forest - a haven for many species

The nature reserve Helgedomen has a primeval forest character and there are, for example, plenty of dead standing trees and fallen trees, so-called flames, of different ages and in different stages of decay. These provide good living conditions for the rare insects and mosses, lichens and wood fungi of the natural forest. Forests have grown here for a long time, creating good conditions for the forest animals and plants that need these environments, which are now very rare in our region. The protection of the sanctuary is therefore a contribution to efforts to preserve biodiversity. The soil is permeable and very fine-grained. The bogs consist of pine bogs with sphagnum moss and some wetter marshland.

Accessibility

The sanctuary belongs to level 1 in the County Administrative Board's leveling of the county's nature reserves, which means that the reserve has a wilderness character and lacks outdoor recreation facilities.