Mølen - Watery Wednesday # 3

Mølen is Norway's largest beach of rolling stones - the terrain left behind after the end of the most recent Ice age around 10000 years ago.

Nature, culture, geology and bird life, all in the same place. The wind and sea have lashed the landscape of Mølen for thousands of years, and the place takes its name from the Old Norse word "mol", meaning a stone mound or bank of stones.

The cultural landscape of Mølen, with its total of 230 cairns, is one of the most majestic in Norway. The area has 16 large cairns, many up to 35 m in diameter, with almost 200 small cairns in rows parallel to the shoreline.

The cairns furthest down towards the sea are from the Late Iron Age and Viking times, while those on higher ground are probably older; theoretically, they could be from the Late Bronze Age, as was previously assumed. However, recent research shows that all the cairns of Mølen are probably from the Iron Age.

The smooth, sloping rock of Saltstein was ground by the glacier during the last Ice Age. Abraded strips show that the glacier moved from north to south.

A nice way of approaching Mølen is to walk along the North Sea Trail from Nevlunghavn or Helgeroa. The trail is a more than 5000 km coastal walk in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, England and Scotland.

(From wikipedia)

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