Borasjön lake’s north shore, on the border between Närle and Västergötland, has been a rest place for travellers for around 1000 years. Today only the cloister ruins tell of the area’s rich history. Here was Sweden’s only stronghold for the Antonin Order, and even long after the monks left there was a shelter on the site. The exposed cellar vault may have originated from the monk’s time, but it is thought the building had been in use up to the 16 or 1700s. Today there is Sockenstugan, with café and restaurant right in the middle of the ancient cloister milieu.
From the cloister area there is a trail out to Lake Öudden which is newly restored. After a walk in the forest you reach the marshland, with a duck-board bridge that leads out to the “island”. It is easy to enjoy the walk over the marsh. Around you cottongrass and meadow grass wave, while roselings bloom bright pink. Marsh trefoil’s strange shaped flowers also decorate the barren landscape.
When you reach the island itself you come upon a pine forest on a little ridge. Quickly the coniferous forest changes to a more mellow environment, with leafy birches, hazelnuts and fragile herbal flora. The nature of the island has been more or less undisturbed for a long time, and the forest has slowly engulfed the old crofter’s milieu. The area still bears subtle traces of former land use, when the lake’s water level was lower and the croft was still surrounded by small fields, meadows and pastures. The island’s herbal riches and lush greenery stands in contrast to the nature passed on the way here. Dead wood lies in the grass amongst gorse, spring sedge, snakeberry and arctic starflowers. Earlier in the spring white and blue anemones bloom here. Some lindens and oaks are also on the island, and the young oak ferns seem to thrive.
The path can be taken round the whole island, and here and there along the shore there are BBQ areas and bathing bays. Stop and enjoy the fine deciduous forest, with both old and dead trees as well as woodland flora with white wintergreen, gorse, snakeberry and blue anemones. An uncommon milieu in these parts.
Good shoes, it can be muddy on the duck-board path.
Not suitable for wheelchairs or strollers. The terrain is flat, but it is a walk of several kilometres.
