Ulvshale.pdf

ULVSHALE

are found near Hegnede Bakke, the

youngest at the northern side of

Ulvshale. They give the forest floor a

rolling look with hollows filled with

water between the ridges.

In brief: where the forest of Ulvshale is

today there once was the sea.

Secondly the looks of the forest of

Ulvshale reveals that it was formerly

used for grazing. It is called a light-

open grazing forest. In the 16-1700s

there were many oak trees in the

forest. In 1769 the king sold the forest

to the citizens of Stege. It became a

corporation forest for the citizens of

Stege to be used according to certain

rules. So many trees were felled that

the forest was quite overcut, and so

many cattle were driven to grass that

the forest was quite gnawed down.

Pigs, too, were pastured in the forest;

they were to eat the fruits of the

beeches and oaks (beech nut and

acorn), which was not quite so

harmful to the forest. All the same

the forest of Ulvshale was so gna-

wed down that with the forest pro-

tection law, passed with the

Forestry Act of 1805, it was in such

a poor condition that it was decla-

red a non-forest. The result was that

the grazing continued until 1840 –

1860 when the forest was bought

and afforested.

The forest of Ulvshale contains an

abundance of different tree species,

including bushes. The forest is run

as a natural forest, which means

that on the whole it is left alone. If a

tree falls, it is left to rot, and rotting

trees attract a lot of insects that

feed on the tree. The insects attract

the birds, and so we have a forest fil-

led with many species of both

plants and animals. And fungi: in

the autumn the forest of Ulvshale

can be a veritable paradise for col-

lectors of mushrooms.

ded, as the coastline – the line bet-

ween land and sea – is constantly

changing. Moreover the plants have

to be able to survive in the desert-like

hinterland.

THE FOREST

OF ULVSHALE

The peninsula of Ulvshale is unique,

made of flint from the white cliffs of

Møn, transported here by currents

and waves. This special landscape

means an abundance of various

experiences. We will recommend

only some of the possibilities of this

route leading you through different

types of nature. A major area is quite

flat, but that is of minor importance

to the experiences.

You may start your walking tour in

the forest of Ulvshale or at the

beach, the meadow or the heath.

You can experience a lot of things all

over the place. If you follow the in-

dicated route, you will pass through

some of the key types of nature.

The forest of Ulvshale is quite special. It

is light and open. You cannot find a

forest of a similar kind in all Denmark.

This is mainly due to two circumstan-

ces.

Firstly the forest grows in stony soil –

flint stone soil. The peninsula of

Ulvshale is made of flint stone from the

white cliffs of Møn. When the cliffs

erode, the chalk disappears into the

sea, whereas the heavy flint stones are

transported by the currents and the

waves northward and southward and

then westbound, where they have

built the peninsula of Ulvshale and the

point of Hårbølle. The flint at Ulvshale

has been deposited in large banks –

beach ridges. The earliest beach ridges

SUGGESTIONS FOR ACTIVITIES:

Try to find different adaptations with the

plants, e.g. thick skin, hair, a layer of wax on

their leaves, seeds filled with air that can

float away and sprout somewhere else.

Look at the many different insects and other

small animals that live at the beach.

WEEKEND COTTAGES

AT ULVSHALE

At Ulvshale there is quite a display of

“summer houses throughout the

time”. Many elements make Ulvshale

a sought-after holiday resort. For one

thing Ulvshale is a lovely natural area

with a good bathing beach, an interes-

ting forest, heath and meadow for

country walks. In the second place the

soil at Ulvshale is not particularly good

for farming, which has meant the lack

of interest from the farmers here.

A number of summer houses at the

Sandvejen were built between 1918

and 1921. They stand in line along the

edge of the forest and are quite uni-

form as for materials, shapes and

colours. Often they are black with a

high rise of the roof, and a balcony. At

the Mågenakken there is a small

group of summer houses outside the

forest and quite close to the coast.

The houses were built in the 1939s

and 1940s.

On the other side of the Ulvshalevej

the weekend cottages stand inside

the forest between birches and pines.

The houses look different from each

other. Some of the houses from the

1970s and 1080s are built of bricks

and are more like single-family hou-

ses.

At Ulvshale there are also former

summer boarding houses, e.g. Peters

Hal and Kongens Ø. These houses

together with the oldest summer

houses form part of the sanitary mea-

sures that arose in Europe at the

beginning of the 1900s, intensified

especially in the 1930s. The body,

light, and fresh air were of great

importance.

SUGGESTIONS FOR ACTIVITIES:

Find the beach ridges in the forest and try to

mark a couple of them on a map.

Become acquainted with different trees by

comparing their leaves with the pictures in a

book of trees.

Catch small animals by removing the bark of

fallen trees, lifting broken-off branches or

stones etc.

THE BEACH OF

ULVSHALE

The beach of Ulvshale is one of many

fine bathing beaches on Møn. Here

you can relax, bask in the sun, go

swimming – and take a long walk

along the beach. If the wind has been

easterly, you may find amber. Other

washed-up things may be interesting

to look at: eelgrass, fine thready

algae, various sea shells and plastic

things of modern consumption.

In the dune and dike land behind

there are good possibilities of seeing

different plants and their adaptation

to life in the rough surroundings. The

plants are in constant danger of

being washed out or blown away,

being covered with sand or just floo-

Length of the route: about 8 km

HIKING ON MØN

First the sea was here, later the beach,

and now the forest.

Once the flint was exploited. At the top of

Ulvshale there was a flintworks. The flint

was dug all over the peninsula and was

transported to the works on tipping

wagons, and here it was sorted and ship-

ped to all parts of the world. The round

flint stones (the flint nodules) were used

for crushing the chalk in the production

of cement. Some of the flint was used for

road material, and some was used for the

production of sandpaper.

The digging for flint stopped in 1974, but

at Ulvshale you can still find lots of traces

from that time: many oblong seas are

holes from the former flint digging. Here

and there you’ll find wheel tracks from

the tipping wagons, the old flint works

and the remains of the storage facilities

and the port of disembarkation.

10 THE HEATH OF

ULVSHALE

THE SEAWEED DIKE

To avoid floods it has been common

practice in Denmark to build dikes out

of seaweed. It was obvious to use the

washed-up banks of seaweed, as they

were to be moved but a few metres

further inland to be built up as dikes.

In the first half of the 1700s a large

number of seaweed dikes were built

all over the country – and on Møn,

too.

After 1800 seaweed dikes were no

longer built as common protection

against floods, but more as protec-

tion against the intrusion of untethe-

red cattle into the forest. The seawe-

ed dike along the northern side of the

forest of Ulvshale is one of these dikes,

built 150-200 years ago to keep out

the salt meadow cattle north of the

forest.

The Tourist Agency of Møn has made

a special leaflet on the seaweed dikes.

As for many other natural areas the

meadows and the heath of Ulvshale

are under natural protection.

Through different measures a certain

“natural condition” is being kept. If

nothing is done, the trees will spread

quickly, and the area will end up as a

forest. The same goes generally for

most Denmark. If the farmers gave up

farming, all cultivated areas would

end up as forests after a few years.

ULVSHALE

Why keep the natural areas when it is

that difficult? Why not let them beco-

me overgrown if that is what nature

really “wants”? Because we want to

keep the landscape in a certain condi-

tion, e.g. the way it looked about 100

years ago when the farmers still used

it for grazing the cattle, for hay har-

vest and for cutting the wood.

Natural centres are mainly meant to

copy processes of the past precisely

to keep the landscape in the condi-

tion of former times: the cattle are

grazing, trees are felled, bushes are

cut, grass is cut, heather is burned. All

this to maintain a former condition

and at the same time to secure the

survival of a large number of animals

and plants. The areas have an impres-

sive wealth of species.

SUGGESTIONS FOR ACTIVITIES:

Find some of the traces in the landscape showing

that flint was once dug on Ulvshave.

THE HERDSMAN’S LODGE

The herdsman’s lodge at the dike was

the house of the man who watched

the cattle at the salt meadows north of

the forest. These meadows belonged

to the farmers of Udby – a village out-

side Stege. As the forest of Ulvshale

belonged to the citizens of Stege, the

scene was set for conflicting interests.

8 JUNIPER LAND

Follow the path among the large juni-

pers. Quite an experience. When you

re-enter the forest you can see the

many junipers that do not thrive on this

soil. The juniper takes much light and is

therefore easily shadowed away by

other trees. The many dying junipers at

the northern part of the forest show

that this part of the Ulvshale forest ori-

ginally consisted of junipers.

The meadows and the heath of

Ulvshale are interesting areas. On the

heath there is a number of small lakes

– holes from the digging of flint on

Ulvshale. These lakes contain an

abundance of animal life.

SKANSEN

Skansen, the fieldwork to the north,

was built at the beginning of the 1800s

to protect against the English. The

Skansen was manned with soldiers

keeping an eye on possible Englishmen

who might come from the north. The

fieldwork never came into use.

ULVSHALEGÅRD

Ulvshalegård was built as an attempt to

cultivate or to keep sheep at some of the

very poor areas. Today the farm exclusi-

vely serves as habitation, and the stable

and the barn have become a natural

centre.

SUGGESTIONS FOR ACTIVITIES:

Find examples of preservation on the heath of

Ulvshale.

Bring a net and a bucket, and catch small ani-

mals in the water holes on the heath.

FLINT INDUSTRY

ON ULVSHALE

As mentioned in the section concer-

ning the forest of Ulvshale, the entire

peninsula of Ulvshale is built of flint

coming from the white cliffs of Møn.

The flint stones were thrown up upon

the beach in large banks – beach rid-

ges. If you take a walk in the forest of

Ulvshale, you can easily find the ridges,

especially if you go across the peninsu-

la: up and down, up and down it goes.

Sponsored by the Danish Open Air Council

and the EU Leader+ Programme.

Storegade 2, DK-4780 Stege · Tel.: +45 55 86 04 00 · Fax +45 55 81 48 46

e-mail: info@visitmoen.com · www.visitmoen.com

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