Route 2218 - Melleruds kommun

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Route 2218
The Route of Beautiful Hamlets
Sights * Culture * Wildlife

Discover the Dalsland away from the main roads. Travel through old hamlets and cultivated land. See the changing nature with deep forests, small lakes and swirling streams. Enjoy the view over lakes and mountains. And feel free to stop to go for a short or a longer walk.

Bedrock and Flora
The bedrock of the are was formed 1 100 million years ago and consists of a number of spieces of rock in a certain order. The rock has been folded and faul crackings and overthrusts gave been formed. This has made its mark on the landscape, with narrow north-to-south-lakes and steep hills and varying types of nature.
Crumbling calcic slate spieces of rock have been the origin of meadowy spruce forests rich in spieces, more swampy forests with rich marches, forests of broad-leaved trees and dry meadows full of flowers.
The hard spieces of rock containing quartz make way for a barren herbage where the dry rocky ground with piones is the most typical.
The ice sheets of the ice age has also formed the landscape. West of Trollungebyn there are traces of the highest coast line in the form of terraces. Close to the raod, on the left side, north of the last house in Tångebyn, there are two giant’s kettles, that were formed by the ice sheets.

Wetlands
I the south parts of the area there are many valleys with streams lined with braod-leaved trees where the landowners with economical support have created ponds to help plants and animal life- You could for example visit the wetlands around Trollungebyn or Kärr, and Sjöbäcken (a stream) with the wetland of Årbol.

1 Årbolfjället
Steep mountainsides with a rich flora and fauna by the lake Näsölen.

2 Årbol
This house, Stenbacken, was once an inn. King Karl XIV Johan is said to have been one of the guest when he was on a campaign against Norway. Under the house there are remnants of a cellar från 1510. The cow-shed was bulit about 200 years ago.

Cultural landscape of national interest
The hamlets and the farm land between Tegen and Hallersbyn are of national interest for cultural heritage conservation. Many of the buildings are fine examples of architecture in Dalsland in the middle of the 19th century and are gathered in small hamlets. 1856-1916 there was a spa in Tegen with healthbringing ferric water.

Källhult 3-7
There was a village shop with a post office here between 1921 and 1968. Just south of the shop there is a well that never freezes or runs dry. The hamlet is named after that well. ”Käll” is short for ”källa”, meaning well, and ”hult” means broad-leaved forest.
There is aq well preserved school environment from the 1860s in Källhult. The teacher’s residence from the 1930s is restored at a later date. Nowadays the houses are provate residences.
By the village hall there is a stone with ”skålgropar”. It has been moved here from its original place.
A forest road right of the village hall leads to a ”flågmarksområde” called ”flyra”, which means an area with gravel and pebbles that sometimes get flooded.

When the road was built
Until the beginning of the 20th century you were only able to travel with vehicles from Årbol to Hallersbyn. After that you had to travel along winding footpaths between the cottages and houses on the mountain. A road to Ränsliden was completed in 1917, but the rest of the road to Mustadfors was not completed until 1936.

Grönhult
Here you can find many stone carving, wheel spiders (tveksam till ordet) and mills in the streams, together with a stona aged cist grave.

Lianefjället
In 2007 the ground was burnt to give way for a wider biological diversity.

Buterud
Buterud is situated between two lakes, Åklång and Råvarp. From Butered you can go for walks along Dalslands Kanal and you can climb Buterudsklacken, the peak of Buterud, from where you have got a beautiful view.

Building styles
In the beginning of the 19th century, when the inhabitants of Dalsland got improved living conditions, the bulding of two-storey-cottages started. This style can be seen in many places but it became especially popular in Dalsland. Therefor it is named ”dalslandsstuga” (Dalsland Cottage).
People also built extension so that two smaller cattages could be joined to form a kind of a semi-detatched house, called ”parstuga” (pair cottage). In Tångebyg there is a timbered ”parstuga” with the oldest part built as early as 1760.
The slate roofs still present on many houses and cottages is a distinctive feature in Dalsland. Slate mining used to be an important industri in the area.

15-16
Flathults gård is one of two houses in Dalsland with the outer walls covered in slate. De other one is Ekenäs gård by Gunnarsnäs kyrka (the church of Gunnarsnäs), Dals Rostock
The road copntinues towards Dalskog, passing the fine hamlet Södra (South) Båsane.
At Norra (North) Båsane there is a nature reserve with more than 300 different feather moss.

Ancient monuments and grafitti 8-9
On the hills west of Källhult there there are cairns from the stone age.
Noreth of Källhults skola, about 60 metres west of the road towqards Hallersbyn, there are a number of stone carvings made in later times. The oldest are from the 18th century. There are signs showing the way to the carving.

Hallersbyn and Håbolsbyn 10
The two storey houses with the fronts painted in light colours are built later than the Dalsland cottages and are typical for farm houses from the 1850s and onwards. Many of the houses have slate roofs.
The name Hallesbyn probably originates from Halvor, a man’s name.

Lundeby field of rocks
The road towards Bäckefors passes through a peculiar landscape with big rocks. They were probably formed by sudden movements of the ice sheets covering the land during the ice age.

Millstones on Lianefjället 18
For 200 years, from the early 18the century to the early 20th century, mill stones was made on Lianefjället.
If you walk a few hundred meters straight into the wood, towards the power line you can see remnants of rocks aimed for mill stones.
The word fjäll usually means bare mountain. Here it is used in oldfashioned way meaning outfields.

Ränsliden – the land of the lily of the valley 19
This is a valuable agricultural landscape with small fields and traces of old time farming methods, like trimmed trees, tracks for cows, cairns for growing things and meadows rich with flowers. Here you find large areas with the lily of the valley. It is a fine example of a well-preserved agricultural landscape.
The name Ränsliden means the slope by the lake Ränn.

Flaterud
If you drive up this road you get a fine view. In clear weather uou can see across Lake Vänern to Kinnekull.

The streams supplied power 11
West of the lay-by at Hallersbyn there are traces of a water power plant. To the right of the stream there is a tunnel through the ground and on the other side an articficial lake. Down the slopes there are many streams that, like this one, has been used to give power to mills, sawmill and different workshops. (Obs! Många av de ord som finns i detta stycke existerar inte i vanliga svensk-engelska lexikon.)

Sågeviken and Hallersby kvarn (mill) 12
You can take a nice walk to Hallersby kvarn along a forest path. The mill is powered by the water through an in-built wheel. The mill has been here since at least the 18th century and it was used up to the 1940s. It has been restored since then.
At a waterfall nearby there once was a sawmill.
Around Såeviken at the south end of Rännen there is a forest and wetland with rich flora and fauna.

Ramdalen
Dry meadowland rich with floers and valuable agricultural land with well-kept buldings round the original site of the hamlet. Beautiful view towards lake Råvarp and Dalslands Kanal.
Ramdalen used to be difficult to reach by road but is easy to access if you arrive from the lake. There used to be many small farms here, and the hamlet had both a shop and a school.

Ånäsebäcken
A gully with pine trees and a rich flora. You can go for walks along the paths of the gully.

Dalslands Kanal (The Dalsland Canal)
The canal was opened in 1868 and is a 250 kilometres long waterway från Lake Vänern to Värmland. The canal revolutionised communications and made it possible to travel by water out into the world.
Today it is very popular with tourists. Only ten kilometres is a dug canal, the rest travels through narrow, trollike lakes. At the end of the canal you are 67 metres above the waterlevel in Lake Vänern and you have travelled through 31 locks.

Dals Långed
This is a farstretched village. It is wollknown for its long tradition in art and crafts. Many artists and craftsmen live in the village. Here you also find Stenebyskolan, a school for arts and crafts.
Mustadfors
In Mustadfors they manifacture horse.nails, a unique industri where they still use machines from the 19th century.

Södra Hedetjärnet
This is close to the Norwegian border and during World War II they built obstacles for tanks in many places around here. Two piers in the waters tells of turnpikes in olden days.
In the mountain above there is a rock shelter that was used for surveillance. It is blocked nowadays.