October 26, 2014: Looking for fossils
For 500 million years ago was Skåne in deep water. At Andrarum fifty meters. Light clay particles were transported long distances before they sank to the bottom. They formed the shale layer, which today can be seen in Andrarum where the remains of Alunbruket is located.

Sets the car in the parking before the bridge over Verkeån at the coffee house, Kaffestugan. Autumn colors surround the pond next to the path that goes to the old factory site. Passing the magazine, shortly after is a path to the right to a dance floor and a shale wall. In the shale can one find pieces of fossils of trilobites.

The trilobites chnaged shell and it is the shell can be seen. Passing a small wetland to get to the shale wall. Below the cliff wall is loose shale pieces. Go cautiously and looking among the pieces. Autumn leaves is like hot coals in the dark shale. On some pieces can one see centimeter fossils. Exciting thought that these tiny creatures lived here 500 million years ago.

Back to the present. Lunch on the benches on the hill next to the shale. On the other side of the hill is a dance floor. Slippery on the floor after rain. A brief dance.

Goes the path to the remains of the boiler house. Back over the red slag heaps. Just before the magazine is a bridge over Verkeån. A brook falls down the slope. Taking coffee at the dam above.

2 September 2012: Quarries
I park the car in the parking lot near the coffee cottage Alunbruket. There was once a alum works which in its time was Skåne's largest industry. It was founded in 1637 and flourished in the 1th century under Christina Pipers lead. She built Christinehofs Castle, located a few kilometers west of the works. When one in the 19th century could produce alum chemically reduced the works importance and it was closed down in 1906. It was a difficult process to produce alum, at most 900 people was at the works. Alum, a salt, used as medicine, dyeing and tanning. It was recovered from the alum shale. On the one kilometer trek eastward, one can still see traces of the works.

Near the parking is a pond, I suspect that it may be a water-filled quarry. Go east on a gravel path, past a white building which was a storehouse for the works. Turning to the south takes me to a dance floor, in the 19 century it was at the castle but was later moved here. Not that I'm going to dance, I can not, but here you can see a slate wall. The remains of one of the slate quarries. Slate was formed 500 million years ago, and it'll be a lot of fossils here. Searching among the pieces which is located beneath the wall, see no. Studying the steep wall, climb up a bit. Can still find nothing. Probably because I do not really know what I'm looking for. I return to the gravel path.

North of the path is are slag heaps of burnt red shale. What was left of their production. Between the heaps remains of tanks are seen where alum was leached. The liquor flowed in pipes down to the boiler house where it was boiled. The ruin after the boiler house is in the east end. See my earlier visit farther down this page. From the tops of the piles have one nice views of the area. On the piles blooming heather. Sheep grazing the area. They look peaceful out, the last sheep I encountered was literally, I continue further into the pasture.

At the boiler house I turn. Shortly before the magazine is a path through the meadow to a bridge over Verkeån. A trail goes from there to Skåneleden shelters. A car stands there and a fire smoldering. A family have spent the night, and now hopes to having fishing luck in Verkasjön hundred meters away.

It is lunch for me too, but I think I eat at Kaffestugan Alunbruket. One hundred meters north from the car park is a few houses from the alum works village. In a half-timbered house is the coffee cottage Kaffestugan Alunbruket, I go there for lunch.

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2 May 2010: Boiling house
I walk Skåneleden from Heinge recreational area, and arrive at a pond. Slipping down the slope towards the pond. Geese makes noise and lifts. Coming to a fence which blocks the trail. I have arrived at Andrarum alunverk, east of Christinehof castle. Must climb over a wall and round the works. It is fenced because of the risk of sliding stones a plate say. On one side is something like a ledge that you can go out in order to get an overview. This is a piece of industrial history of Skåne. Here alum were extracted from alum shale, starting in 1637 and until 1912. A heavy work and ultimately not very rewarding process. Alum was used for dyeing, tanning, and the bonding of paper, I read on the information plate. It was also used as a cure for everything. Stone walls and slag heaps are what is left. On the south wall is something that probably is a structure of half timbered house. In front of it is the foundation of a building with saffianskar, coffins in which alum was crystallised, after it has been boiled in the boilers. A hole in the ground is perhaps a cellar? Some remains have unknown use. In the west lies the slag heaps, with what was over. Goes up on one of them. Farther away is the warehouse where supplies were stored.

A Skåneleden sign is pointing to Heinge, but not from where I came. The trail is probably rescheduled.

On the nearby road mate two toads. The male has a good time, the female carries him on her back. Hmm, I look around, but do not see any female who can carry me back to the car at Heinge recreational area. I must walk myself. Take the highway past the Andrarum church. At home do I try to learn more about the different buildings was used for, it was not clear to me from the information signs.

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