The Kings ground

or Kings land, "Kungsmarken" in Swedish, is the name of this area. It's now a nature reserve and protected by law. There are still active farms in the area though, the dirt road is part of a farmers land but it's highly accessible for everyone who wants to walk and explore the area and a huge tourist magnet for bird and nature lovers.

In 1572 one of our kings decided he wanted to use all of Öland as a personal property for hunting and a supply of oak trees, used for building ships of war. The peasants living here were prohibited to hunt the kings deer and to chop down trees to use as firewood, if they had a dog, the farmer had to chop one of its legs off to stop it from being used for hunting. It's the poorest period of the islanders history, the period didn't end until 1801.

My walk started at the research station called Linné, specialized on research on insects. This area, where the midland-forest changes into Alvar, the plain covering most of the southern island, is one of the richest areas for insects in all of Sweden and "Station Linnaeus" is famous for their work (follow the link and choose language on the page). As you can see the weather was lovely today, not warm but hinting and I had a most lovely time on my six km walk along the marked trail. I was surprised to see some activity among the beehives this early (extra). Back at the station where I left my car, I saw this cabinet on the wall, a typical joke from the english chief-researcher here, Dave Karlsson, PhD. If you see an insect you never seen before, break the glass and catch it.