Ales Stenar - the Swedish Stonehenge

It had long been my wish to visit Stonehenge in England. For some reason I have just felt drawn to it since I was a small child and saw a picture of it in some magazine or other. I finally get to make that visit last June, but just prior to that trip Lars decided to surprise me with a visit to Ales Stenar. Now, I had seen the small stone versions at various places while driving around South Sweden (Skane), but had no idea that there were some that were so damn big. This place rawks hard.

Waaaay back in the days of Vikings, the Swedish used to make these Stone arrangements as tributes to those lost at sea, and usually included several graves. What makes Ales Stenar a bit unusual is that no graves have been found here. The stones are set in the layout of a ship, as usual, with each end corresponding to the summer and Winter solstices. This thing is enormous. I mean, the height of the stones themselves are not that tall... bigger than Lars' 6'6" on the end stones, but the middle stones are shorter than my 5'2"... but the layout is large enough that it originally was made up of 59 stones total. Wow. Measuring 67 metres long and 19 metres wide, this is one of the largest thingies in Scandinavia.

They estimate that it was erected originally around 600AD. It sits just back off a cliff on the Baltic Sea in a town called Kaseberga, just down the road a bit from Ystad. Well, it isn't actually in the town; it is actually in a field on the cliff. You go down by the harbour to park by the small gift shop and eateries in the cove, then walk up a ton of freaking steps, then another steep incline, then around the bend there... this is not a trek for the handicapped. I had to keep stopping to rest. It was worth the hike.

Because of the location by the sea, many of the stones are no longer there. Only 16 of the original 59 remain. They have periodically had to uncover the site from being buried in sand. Now that it has become such a tourist attraction, it is kept free of sand regularly. Amazingly enough, there is no fee to see this, nor is it walled off. You can walk right up to and into the stones. Very, very cool, that.

So. Since there are no graves in what appears to be a monument to a ship lost at sea, there is a lot of speculation as to the true intent and usage of this stone site. I won't give you tales of visions or emanations here, but I will tell you that there is a definite Altar Stone at the Northwest end of the ship shape (where the sun sets at midwinter.) Gather from that what you will. All I'm saying is that it greatly impressed me, and if you know anything at all about the Old Ways, you will recognize what seemed immediately obvious to me.

If there is any drawback to this visit, other than the rugged hike, it is that the gift shop has absolutely nothing other than a keychain about Ales Stenar. Oh they have lots of touristy Swedish stuff in general... but I wanted something specific to this spot in Sweden. Yanno? Oh well, I gave the guy so much grief over it that he probably will have plenty of Ales Stenar tourist crap when you go... You owe me a beer for that.

Five out of five very high stars for Ales Stenar. It is impressive, ancient, unusual, and FREE. Just remember that it is a bit of a beyotch to get to...