Dovrasjödalen, Naturreservat

The Dovrasjö Valley Nature Reserve has long been a popular destination for excursions due to its wilderness character. Three long, narrow lakes are located here in a deep rift valley in the bedrock. Dovrasjödalen is owned and managed by Region Örebro County.

Region Örebro County manages the reserve

The Dovrasjödalen nature reserve is managed by Region Örebro County. This means that it is Region Örebro County that manages facilities such as trails, shelters, rest areas, information, etc. in the nature reserve. If you have questions or wish to report faults in the reserve, contact:

Region Örebro County
Error reporting: 019-602 60 00

Volcanoes, water and ice

The lakes are largely surrounded by steep rock walls and extensive coniferous forests. The most pronounced cliffs are on the northern lake. The reserve contains centuries-old mixed coniferous forest and rocky pine forest, the latter with much older pines. The deep and narrow rift valley was once filled with the volcanic rock diabase. Over the millennia, water and ice have worn away the diabase, leaving only the steep sides of the more resistant bedrock. On the outcrops by the northern lake, you can see that the rock consists of a very coarse-grained gneiss, called eye gneiss. Here you can also see how hard rocks, which were frozen in the bottom layer of the ice sheet, have scratched the rock. These so-called ice grooves indicate the direction of movement of the advancing ice mass.

Poor outcrops and rich valley bottoms

When hiking around the Dovra lakes, you notice how different the vegetation is up on the mountain and down in the valley. On the dry and lean rocky ground, pine trees take root in narrow cracks in the rock. Heather, lingonberry, lichens and mosses cope well with this barren plant environment. Down in the valley there are remnants of the rock type diabase, which is alkaline and provides a completely different and richer vegetation. The richest vegetation is found in the valley north and south of the lakes. Bluebell, spring barley, woodruff, spring pea, witch hazel and violet are some of the plants found here.

Fornborgen

From the parking lot, follow the orange-marked path for one kilometer to the trail junction near the ancient castle, to reach the reserve via the castle. Another option is to continue the path to the northern tip of the northern lake. At the ancient castle you can see the remains of the castle wall. On the other side, the steep cliffs of the rift valley were used as a defense.

Dovra church

In the rocky hillside at the northern tip of the lake, there is an arch-shaped protruding rock called Dovra Church. This notable formation has been created by block weathering in the rock. A fractured area like the Dovra Valley is an excellent target for the destructive forces of water and frost. As water penetrates into the cracks in the rock and increases in volume during the transition to ice, these cracks widen. Eventually, even large blocks can become detached from the rock wall. When this happened here is uncertain. According to tradition, it was the giant in Dovradalen who broke off the block to crush Viby church. The giants could not stand the sound of the church bells and the new Christian doctrine. So they used to try to destroy the church bells with so-called giant throws. The giant's wife was called Dovra. She mourned for having such a wild husband, and her fighting tears were collected in the rift valley and formed the three lakes.

Walk around the three lakes

There are options to walk around one, two or three lakes. Around the northern lake alone it is 2.3 kilometers, around the northern and middle lake 4.0 kilometers and around all three lakes 6.5 kilometers. The distance from the parking lot to the start at the northern lake is 1.5 kilometers, so back and forth 3 kilometers.