Near Karlskrona

Nature reserves near Karlskrona

Karlskrona Municipality has 36 nature reserves wholly or partly within its boundaries. Three reserves west of the city share Blekinge’s wooded coast, yet rock, grazing, woodland history and sea have given each a distinct character.

Veteran trees in two manor landscapes

Skärva surrounds the late eighteenth-century estate created by naval architect Fredrik Henrik af Chapman. Beech, oak, ash, lime and hornbeam stand among pasture, grove, shore meadow and fen. Ivy climbs massive trunks whose bark, cavities and decaying wood support lichens, bracket fungi and insects.

Tromtö also grew within a manor landscape, but extends across a peninsula, islands and surrounding water. Beech and oak woodland rich in hollow trees changes to oak and pine on higher ground. Water-filled pits from an eighteenth-century brickworks now serve amphibians, while a Viking-age pile barrier survives at the entrance to Hjortahammarviken.

A granite spine and life below the surface

Knösö follows a granite ridge rising twenty metres between Verkö and Säljö. Wind-shaped scrub oaks grow above bare rock and heath, with giant oaks in former pasture below. Two “recumbent hens” are prehistoric grave markers made from large boulders resting on smaller stones.

At Tromtö, the living landscape continues underwater. Bladder wrack, serrated wrack and stonewort meadows occupy the shallow bays, providing shelter and food for young fish. Skärva, Knösö and Tromtö thus reveal three dimensions of nature near Karlskrona: veteran trees in a designed landscape, wind-shaped coastal woodland on granite and a marine habitat beginning at the water’s edge.

Three reserves near Karlskrona

Skärva

4.6 km in a straight line from the centre

Broadleaved woodland and a cultural landscape
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Knösö

5.1 km in a straight line from the centre

Coastal rocks, oak, beech, pine and orchids
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Tromtö

5.5 km in a straight line from the centre

An extensive coastal landscape with oak and beech woodland
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Map of nature reserves near Karlskrona