Billingen

When the inland ice melted 10,000 years ago it turned colder for a few centuries. The ice therefore didn't melt. Large rivers in the ice and broken off icebergs, with the help of gravel and sand, formed a hilly landscape, a so called kame landscape. A mixture of gravel ridges, hills, moraine ridges, eskers and plateaus frame valleys, often with a lake or a marsh.

The landscape is also very varied, in that meadows, grazing land and arable land intermingle with lakes and broad-leaved deciduous forest.

On a small area, around 1100 ha, are actually six nature reserves with varying floras and faunas. Old cultivated land with pastureland, clearance cairns and stone walls, groves with broad-leaved trees, lime-rich fens with orchids, colourful flower meadows, and peaceful fishing lakes...

A ridge with an Ice Age past Bockaskedeåsen is a marked and prominent ridge, which was formed at the time of the melting of the inland ice 10,000 years ago. Bockaskedeåsen is about 600 metres long and about 35 metres high. This makes it the highest and most noticeable ridge in the Valle area. It is covered by grazing land. Björnabacken is a steep slope with a couple of long hills. It consists mainly of arable and grazing land with some grove landscape.

Deciduous forest with an almost tropically dense vegetation
Eahagen-Öglunda meadows are in the middle of the Valle area, with the lakes Ämten and Flämsjön. On the neck of land between the lakes – an isthmus – is the actual Eahagen, which is a grove with broad-leaved trees such as oak, elm, lime-tree and wild cherry. The flora, which benefits from the calcium in the ground, is rich. In the spring the grounds flower with among others spring pea, lungwort and coralroot.

This nature reserve, which contains many of the, from a nature point of view, most valuable parts of the Valle area, is in its entirety a well-preserved ancient cultivated landscape with a mosaic of arable land, grazing land and broad-leaved deciduous forest. In the reserve are also two grave fields from the Iron Age and some single graves. The vegetation is lush, with many calcium-dependant species that are rare in other areas. Especially the spring and early summer the flora can be recommended to all flower lovers.

There is also a walking trail, called "Valle Vandring", which goes past. It starts in Flämslätt and is around 10 km long.

There is a rich bird-life in the deciduous forest. You may for example see and hear wryneck, wood warbler, nightingale and several species of woodpecker.

The castle ruins in Gamla Höjentorp, which dates back to the 13th century, is in the largest of the six nature reserves. The castle is said to have been donated to the bishop of Skara in 1284, but was then returned to the crown at the time of Gustav Vasa's reformation. At the middle of the 17th century, Queen Kristina gave the castle as a wedding gift to Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie's wife, Maria Eufrosyne. In 1722 the castle burnt down and it is said that Queen Ulrika Eleonora was visiting at the time. She watched the fire from a nearby hill, which was then named after this – Drottningkullen (the Queen Hill). Today only the ruins of the basement remain of the original castle, but the place bears witness of the importance of this area in the Middle Ages, which was also when Skara had its period of greatness. In the overgrown castle garden are beautiful ashes and lime-trees and in the slope down towards the Garden Lake it smells of ramsons and other rare plants. During his journey through Västra Götaland in 1746 Carl von Linné came here and he writes among other things: "Höjentorp was situated in a most wonderful place and had the nicest of positions".

Take the bridge Kungsbron over the idyllic lake Trädgårdssjön. There, by the lake's northern shore, you'll find Höjentorp castle ruins. Within walking distance of the ruins is the historic Höjentorp's farm. This is where the potato-king Jonas Alströmer ran his farming school in the 18th century.
The nature reserve includes the hilliest parts of the Valle area with the greatest number of lakes. In the northeast section, is the most pronounced kame landscape in the country. The ground is rich in calcium and this can be seen in the lakes by the calcium sediments and the multitude of mussels, molluscs and stoneworts.
The landscape is remarkably diversified and is in part of ancient type. There are many walking paths in the area.
Walking is also available on marked footpaths along winding, grazed ridges in the southern part of the nature reserve.

Steep walk for a miles wide view.
If you are looking for a more "challenging" nature experience, we recommend Jättadalen, a deep small stream valley surrounded by diabase precipices. Park by Öglunda church. The walk up to Jättadalen is steep and a little demanding. You can stop and catch your breath by a spring with tasty water purling through the clay slate.

Once up on the mountain edge you're greeted by the view over the Valle area with its mosaic of lakes, deciduous forest and pastureland, and with a blue Kinnekulle in the far distance.
Well worth the effort!

Caves and precipices
Jättadalen is in the diabase slope at the western side of Billingen. It is the very hard rock diabase, at the top of the mountains, which has protected them from being broken down by ice, wind and water.
Here by Jättadalen the diabase forms vertical drops, with pillars and crevices. Below the drops are screes with fallen, jagged blocks of diabase.

From the viewpoint above Jättadalen the path continues south. If you follow it, you will eventually end up by Oglunda Cave, which is a similar ravine, huge blocks of diabase in the screes here form cave-like rooms.
By the 'cave' there are also free-standing pillars of diabase.

A walking trail called "Valle vandring" passes down through Jättadalen. It starts in Flämslätt and is 10 kilometres long.

Torp nature reserve is a well-preserved and representative part of Billingen's western side, with a very deep valley called Torprännan just below the mountain side. Torprännan and some smaller valleys further up the slope were formed by powerful floods of water caused by the melting of the inland ice.

At the top the diabase has formed a partly steep slope. Low lying parts are made up of open arable and pastureland, which higher up changes into grazing land with elements of oak plantations etc.
Wild cherry is abundant, but nearest to the diabase slope the Norway spruce dominates. On the slope are a few cottages, foundations and deserted land from previous settlements.

The manor house at Torp's Farm was erected in the 18th century and has preserved interior details in empire style from the beginning of the 19th century. The rest of the buildings are from the early part of the 19th century. The farm used to be home to the cavalry captain of the Kungliga Västgöta regiment, which was stationed on Axvalla moor. The buildings and the surrounding gardens are rich in history.

A footpath leads across the fields up into a hilly landscape with pastureland, grazing land and groves of deciduous trees where you'll find hawfinch and spotted nutcracker.

From the car park, by the public road, a marked footpath leads into the nature reserve.

This nature reserve is dominated by an old-fashioned cultivated landscape with arable land, open pastures, grazing land and deciduous forests. From the ridge you have a beautiful view of the surrounding area.