NEED TO KNOW
LOCATION Ales Stenar is located near the fishing village of Kåseberga in southern Sweden
ACCESS Free
DAYTIME TEMPERATURES
Jan: 36°F (2°C);
Apr: 63°F (l7°C);
Jul: 64°F (18°C);
Oct: 48°F (9°C)
At first sight, Ales Stenar might look like a henge, but it is in fact oval, not circular, the stones at each end markedly larger than the rest.
Floating on a wave of green in an ocean of grassy headland lapped by the Baltic Sea, this is the most significant of Sweden’s thousand or more “ship settings” – rings of standing stones in the shape of a boat, with the large stone acting as the prow, and another as the stern with a small “rudder” behind.
The stones probably date from the Viking period – a clay pot and a few burnt human bones found on the site have been traced back to AD 600.
Practical Information
Getting There and Around The nearest town is Ystad, which is 11 miles (18 km) away and has bus services. There are frequent trains from Malmö in Sweden, which is 45 minutes away by car. Copenhagen in Denmark also offers train services, or you can make the 1-hour journey by road. From Kåseberga, it is a short walk through fields up to the site.
When to Go May to October.