Swedish Ancient Castle remains

[icebear]

Last year I posted a few pictures from the remains of a 400-500 AD castle close to our summer cottage on the island of Öland off the swedish east coast.

It is an intriguing place because it is situated in the middle of the woods and it consists of 3 meter high "walls" of large stones in a 127 meter circle and there are also housing grounds inside the outer walls. The remains are believed to be from a huge castle with 9 entrances and 88 visible house foundations inside.

This year the weather was a little better so we managed a few good pictures. Since it was party cloudy and quite windy, I decided to use my Pentax S4 but the shots came out surprisingly sharp.

Last years thread is found here;

www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=556870&highlight=ismanstorp

Enjoy!

/Icebear

[skymind]

Very nice IceBear. It appears to be more of a crude fortified encampment for a community.

[Tom Harper]

Icebear,

Great shots!

I have a few questions about the site:

Is the area inside of the circle mounded or slightly raised?

Is there a general slope to the outer circle? In view 10 it looks like there is a small pond in the lower right. Is that the low spot?

In the upper left and upper right of view 15 it looks like there are foundations of additional buildings.

Your high altitude shot places the ruin in the center of a cleared square. Do you think this is modern or might there be another low wall or berm hidden by the trees?

A very interesting place - thanks for sharing.

Tom

[icebear]

Very nice IceBear. It appears to be more of a crude fortified encampment for a community.

Thanks Skymind! Yes, "castle" maybe doesn't translate right from Swedish - I mean fortified village really.


I have a few questions about the site:
Is the area inside of the circle mounded or slightly raised?
Is there a general slope to the outer circle? In view 10 it looks like there is a small pond in the lower right. Is that the low spot?
In the upper left and upper right of view 15 it looks like there are foundations of additional buildings.
Your high altitude shot places the ruin in the center of a cleared square. Do you think this is modern or might there be another low wall or berm hidden by the trees?

Thanks for your comments and questions Tom!

The floor on the inside of the circle is the same level as outside but the walls are made of stones just like the outer wall - hope I understood your question correctly!
There is no slope - the ground is quite flat and as far as I know there is no pond in the area. The area around the site is kept clear by grazing sheep every summer nowadays. There are several fortfied villages like this on the island but this is one of the most famous. I will post pics opf another one some day soon... :)

/Bjorn

[Tom Harper]

Bjorn,

I will look forward to more pictures.

I am examining contemporary sites in the southwest. I am interested in how they handled reality problems like drainage. When you wall an area it becomes a swimming pool during a rain storm. Any clue as to how they drained the community. Might be interesting to visit during a storm.

There is a community (~AD 800) near here that is built on the narrow peaks and ridges of low hills. Most archaeologists say these sites were selected for defense. I think they may have just picked a place where they could let the water run out.

Tom