Walking in Åkulla beech forests

During our visit to the Ästad vineyard, which you can read about here herewe took the opportunity to hike in Åkulla beech forest, one of Sweden's most famous beech forest areas. The area is located a bit inland at the height of Varberg and Falkenberg. There are a total of 12 different trails, all of which are quite short, ranging from one to six kilometres. However, all the trails are connected by paths, so if you want a longer trip, you can walk between the trails and get a total distance of 66 kilometres. The Hallandsleden trail also runs through Åkulla beech forests.

Above you have an overview map of all the trails and at Åkulla beech forest's website you will find not only this map but also smaller maps for each trail and also tips on attractions along each trail. It is really nice that they have made an effort to provide good information about each trail. It makes it easier to decide which trail to walk and there are also suggestions for small stops along the way.

Since we started from Ästad, we chose a couple of the trails that were right next to the vineyard. Before breakfast and with yesterday's wine package as a lightly throbbing reminder in our heads, we took a shorter trip, Slottstigen, which is named after Öströö Castle. Incidentally, the castle belongs to Gekås owners, it apparently goes well for Ullared. 🙂 Along the way you will also find a sheep farm with lamb safari, delicacies and café. However, there was no coffee stop for us, we had a breakfast buffet to look forward to.

After breakfast, we walked the Älvasjöstigen, the second trail that starts from Ästad and is 5.7 kilometres long. It is an incredibly scenic trail that runs along the water almost all the way. If you suffer from cow fear, I suggest you choose another route as this trail passed through a couple of pastures with very curious, but oh so cute cows.

One of the trails goes around Bockstens mosse, where a well-preserved corpse from the Middle Ages was found in 1936. The pH value of the bog had preserved the corpse so that the skeleton, hair and some of the stomach contents were almost intact along with the corpse's clothes. On the Varberg Fortress you can look at the Bockstein man and his original clothes. You can also see reconstructions of what he probably looked like and copies of his clothing from the mid-14th century.

By the way, while you are in the neighbourhood, you can stop by Sonja's veranda, a cosy café and restaurant that also has a shop with small items.