One of Sweden's richest bird lakes. Commonly known for the amount of cranes that stop at the lake before flying on towards and from their breeding grounds. On pillars in the lake you find the visitor center Hornborgasjön, an information center including an exhibition about the lake's history and bird life. Hornborgasjön is an over 4000 hectare large nature reserve. The reserve includes mainly the lake and its shoreline, but also some of the old farmland east of the lake.
Welcome to Karleby, Falbygden’s best-preserved Stone Age landscape. Along the 3-kilometre long road through the village are no less than 11 passage graves, monumental family graves built during the Neolithic Period, c. 3,500-3,100 BC.
On the other side of the road there are still dwelling sites in a row, with fields, pastures and access to fresh water that springs from the bedrock. Down in the dip in the east, you can imagine a long-since-gone Stone Age lake. All this is surrounded by plateau mountains affording protection and community.
Passage tombs
In an almost straight row, parallel to the road, you find several passage tombs, including Sweden’s and Karleby’s largest, Ragnvalds kulle. Its chamber is 17 metres long. The name of the grave comes from a legend that describes how King Ragnvald Knaphövde, on his inaugural tour of Sweden in the 1130s, rode into Västergötland without having exchanged hostages. He was therefore beaten to death at Karleby. People later felt that the king must be buried in the biggest grave in the parish. Ragnvalds kulle has never been excavated.
About 80 m south of Ragnvald’s grave lies Klövagården passage tomb. On the other side lies Logård hill.
Dwelling sites
The dwelling sites of Stone Age farmers lay east of the passage tombs further down the slope, below today’s farms (today unfortunately not visible above the ground). Every dwelling site, family or clan probably had its own passage tomb. Several excavations have been carried out by Gothenburg University at the dwelling sites during the 2010s.
Unique landscape
Falbygden’s passage tombs are unique in northern Europe – they constitute one of the best preserved environments from the agricultural Stone Age, largely thanks to the lime-rich bedrock. About 270 passage tombs remain in the region today. They represent ¾ of the total number in Sweden. Falbygden was one of a number of communities in Europe that built megalithic graves, but here the region was strong and autonomous – here the landscape was given characteristics which still remain after 5,000 years.
The linear village
The village name Karleby långa is first recorded in 1361. During the 17th century, Karleby was a linear village comprising 24 farmsteads. The character of the village is still mainly intact, since few farmers were moved out of the village in connection with the land consolidation reforms of the 19th century.