Balsberget

From the top of the hill at Balsberget there is an expansive view out over the plains of Kristianstad and the surrounding landscape. This wooded, hundred-metre-high hill of Archaean rock lies close to the lake Råbelövsjön and offers plentiful opportunities for hiking. This jewel is about 10 kilometres from Kristianstad and is well worth a visit, especially at the time the trees are coming into leaf when the ground is brilliant with flowers and in autumn when the mushrooms appear.

Woodland

Beech woodlands spread out across the slopes. The lime-rich soil means that the woodland fills with spring flowers. Around the first of May the ground is covered with white, blue and yellow anemones. In early morning, you can run into one of the wild animals that live in the woodland – roe deer, moose or fallow deer, occasionally even red deer.

The area is also rich in bird life, with many species. On an early morning visit you may be able to hear small birds singing and woodpeckers such as Black Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and European Green Woodpecker pecking out their nesting holes in the trees. In autumn, it is time to bring along your mushroom basket. There are plenty of trumpet chanterelle and cep.

The Cave

Bats rest deep down in the hill in winter. They hibernate in Balsbergsgrottan, one of Sweden's largest caves. The cave system has over 200 metres of caverns and passageways. The caves are natural, formed by water dissolving the limestone hill, but they have been widened by limestone mining.

Daubenton's bat is the most common species found hibernating in the caves, but other species also find their way here, for example, the threatened barbastelle. In summertime, you can visit the cave, however, between 15 October and 15 April, it is closed in order not to disturb the hibernating bats.