Klostersjön runt walking trail
Varnhem

The first half of the trail is accessible by wheelchair and goes on a hardened gravel path.

Lively lake with rich birdlife

Along the trail, there are several lovely picnic spots where you can enjoy your packed snacks, as well as many interesting places to explore. Klostersjön is a restored wetland, which means it has become a haven for diverse wildlife. Creating wetlands is one of the most effective conservation measures we can take. During your walk, you’ll encounter not only nature, but also fascinating cultural remains.

1. The monastery Ruins

Varnhem Abbey was founded in the mid-12th century. While the grand abbey church still stands, the rest of the monastic buildings were demolished in the 16th century. The ruins of the monastery’s main buildings next to the church were uncovered during archaeological excavations between 1918 and 1925. The visible ruins represent only about one fifth of the original monastery site. Much of the medieval abbey still lies hidden beneath the ground, waiting to be explored.

2. The outer monastery Wall

During the Middle Ages, a limestone wall approximately 3 meters high surrounded Varnhem Abbey. It marked an important boundary separating the monastery from the outside world. Within the wall, the rules and laws of the monastery applied. The wall was dismantled when the abbey was dissolved in the 16th century, and today only the base layers remain underground. Large limestone slabs have been laid in the grass on the western and southern sides of the monastery grounds to indicate where the wall once stood.

3. The monks’ service area

Beneath the turf on the field south of the monastery ruins lie the remains of various buildings once used as workshops, storage, stables, and other utility structures. This was the heart of the monastery’s practical operations, where items needed for daily life were produced and processed—tools and utensils, textiles, leather, rope, lime mortar, roof tiles, planks, charcoal, and firewood. There were also ovens for baking bread and preserving fish and meat, as well as garden beds for medicinal herbs, vegetables, spices, fruit trees, and likely even a beehive.

Archaeological excavations have been ongoing here since 2019 to learn more about how the monks lived in Varnhem.

4. The monastery mill

Every monastery ideally had a mill where grain from the monastery’s farms could be ground into flour. Varnhem’s monastery mill likely dates back to the 12th century and was still in use at the end of the 1800s, then known as “Hammar’s Mill.” At the site, you can see the foundation of the last mill building and the millrace where the large mill wheel once turned.

There is also a natural spring here, where clean water flows out from the mountain. Above the mill, you’ll find Kata Gård—the remains of a large Viking-era farm that cultivated the land before the monks arrived. At Kata Gård, the story of Varnhem’s Christian Vikings is told.

5. The monks’ water channel

To power the monastery mill, flowing water was required. The monks therefore dug a 300-meter-long channel along the southern slope of the mountain to a larger spring.

At the spring, they built a small dam to collect the water. When it was time to grind grain, a sluice gate was opened, sending water rushing down the channel. Water could also be diverted into the monastery itself, where it was used to flush latrines (toilets) and to clean out waste and slop water from the kitchen area.

6. Bronze age burial cairn

At the top of the hill known as “Hammaren” stands a large burial cairn from the Bronze Age or Early Iron Age—around 2,000 to 3,000 years old. From the hilltop, you have a fantastic view over the Monks’ Lake and the monastery grounds. The cairn has never been excavated and still guards its stories and secrets. Its size and prominent location suggest that a person of great importance, either a man or a woman, was buried here.

7. The monks’ dam

When the monks arrived in Varnhem in the mid-12th century, the fertile surrounding lands made it a promising location for establishing a self-sustaining monastery. Still, the monks weren’t entirely satisfied—more water was needed nearby. To solve this, they transformed the old peat bog south of the abbey into a small lake. This provided them with fresh fish, water for their crops and crafts, for the animals, laundry, and many other needs. Remains of the monks’ original dam can still be seen next to the new dam at the southern outlet of Lake Klostersjön.

8. The bee paradise

Many people think all bees live in hives and are domesticated. But Sweden is home to more than 300 species of wild bees, and they all have different needs—different kinds of food and nesting places. At Klostersjön, we’ve created a welcoming habitat for wild bees and other insects that help pollinate flowers.

Different lifestyles

Some bees rely solely on a single type of flower—for example, the bellflower bee, which visits only bellflowers. Others line their nests with special leaves—like the rose leaf-cutter bee, which trims leaves from rose bushes to furnish its nesting holes. There are also bees that live by deceiving others, known as cuckoo bees because they lay their eggs in other bees’ nests, just like the cuckoo bird does. To help all these diverse species survive, we need a wide range of food sources and shelter types—something we’ve tried to provide here in Varnhem.

What is a bee paradise?

Here, we’ve created a small paradise for bees, butterflies, and other insects, offering both shelter and food to suit many preferences. Some species dig their nests in sandy soil, while others lay eggs in holes in wood (you can see that the logs are filled with drilled holes of various sizes to suit different bees). The two bee paradises by Klostersjön are maintained through hay-cutting and grazing, which encourage a diversity of meadow flowers. The more flowers in bloom, the more food for the bees!

Have you spotted an interesting plant or insect? Feel free to report your find at Artportalen.se to help us track which species are benefiting from the bee paradise.

9. Klostersjön

After the monastery was dissolved in the late Middle Ages, the need for a water reservoir disappeared, and the monks’ dam was dismantled. On historical maps from the 18th and 19th centuries, no lake is shown, although there were still three small streams flowing into the area. In the early 20th century, ditches were dug through the peatland to prepare it for cultivation, and in the 1970s, these were replaced by underground cement pipes. Today, the lake has been restored, and just as the monks once did, we too can now enjoy the sight of water glistening across the landscape.