Tyresta National Park
Tyresta National Park is something so remarkable as a large pristine forest just twenty kilometres south of Stockholm´s centre. The park provides the opportunity for long walks in a landscape of ancient trees, strongly-scented marshes and beautiful lakes. It is a place where visitors can experience the silence of the primeval forest, with its characteristic plants and animals.
Sights: Varied virgin forest. 300 year-old giant pines. Ravines with rocky outcrops abraded by ice. Outcrops covered with lichen.
Area: 2,000 hectares.
Established: 1993.
Location: 20 kilometres south-east of Stockholm in Haninge Municipality, Stockholm County.
Visiting Tyresta: The main entrance to the national park is located near the village of Tyresta, which can be easily reached by bus or private car. The National Parks Centre, displaying information on the entire park system, was formally opened in June of 1997. The village, which is an interesting attraction in itself, includes an outdoor information display on Tyresta National Park, dining facilities, and the park supervisor´s office. By means of the fifty kilometres of trails running through the park and an adjoining nature reserve, visitors may experience the extensive ancient forest, the lakes with their impressive shoreline cliffs, or stroll all the way to the Baltic Sea.
Photo: Claes Grundsten/Bildhuset
Tyresta is one of the largest untouched virgin forests outside the mountain regions. Few large cities in Europe have virgin forest in their back yards, as Stockholm does. The barren stony pine forests are in a gorge landscape with stony slopes polished by the ice. This gorge valley landscape is unique from an international perspective. It is only found in central Sweden and in southern Finland. Tyresta's rolling landscape is really an ancient plain. As early as 600 million years ago, wind and water had eroded the mountain range which used to be there. The plain has since been broken up and a system of gorges formed. There are now swamps and lakes in many of the gorges. The park is home to about 80 species of bird, which is unusually many for a coniferous forest. Capercaillie, woodpeckers and owls are characteristic birds of Tyresta's forests. Tyresta's foremost sights are the varied virgin forest, the 300-year-old giant firs, the gorge landscape with its ice-polished slopes and the lichen-covered stony ground. The national park has an information centre, "Nationalparkernas hus".
For further information:
Illustation: Liberkartor, Stockholm
Photo: Claes Grundsten/Bildhuset