The small village of Hegra is located in Stjørdal in the mid part of Norway.

About 2500 people lives in Hegra. The area has got some really interesting ancient remains, such the rock carvings in Leirfald and the “Ingstadkleven Fort“, or, Hegra Fortress as it is known as today.

The fort was the last Norweigan fort to surrender to the invading Germans in May 1940.

Canon at the Hegra Fortress

The way up to the fortress is very interesting itself, we were there in late summer and the fog was laying around us as our car struggled uphill for quite some time.

It’s hard to imagine the feeling in being in the fort, trying to protect it, and the attacking forces are starting to show over there, in the forest.

Small gate in the fort

One of the small gates inside the fort

It felt kind of abandoned, but I guess this fort is nothing you will pass everyday, and even if you do pass it, there are no signs telling you how nice this place actually is. But I can recommend that you go there, if you ever pass. We ran around there for a couple of hours, and I think there was just one other couple there at the time. So it was a bit scary, but very cool indeed.

This is close to the main entrance

Check out the picture gallery:

Picture gallery of the Hegra Fortress at remains.se

I haven’t had any time to blog for my remains blog, as you probably noticed. But soon I will we more focused doing this, and also the main site http://www.remains.se will be upgraded in a major way. So far, I have a draft logotype to work from. It’s based on the first ruin which had a personal affection on me; the old fish- and “freeze house” that my great grandfather built on the island of Ösel (or Saaremaa), Estonia.

So, I will be back pretty soon, and I hope you will join me. I have several thousand more pictures that I want to share.

in the western part of Ireland

A Viking necklace that suppose to be about 1150 year old has recently been discovered in Burren National Park. The cave, in which the necklace was found, is located in the western parts of Ireland.

Photo: Thorsten Kahlert, copyright Marion Dowd

Archaeologists are surprised about the discovery, since the evidence of Norse settlements in this region of Ireland hasn’t been very much.

Dr. Marion Dowd announced the finding this week. She is an archaeologist from the Institute of Technology Sligo, and she is the leader of the excavation.

“The necklace is the largest Viking necklace to have been found in Ireland. Normally, Vikings necklaces that have been found have five to six glass beads, but this has 71 glass beads covered with gold foil.“, she said to the reporters.

She continues;  “It is really bizarre how this necklace from a high-status Viking came to be in a cave in the Burren. There is no parallel for it in Ireland and it is puzzling on a number of fronts. The necklace would have been imported into Ireland from Scandinavia in the late 9th and early 10th century.

Small numbers of these beads have been found with Viking burials at Kilmainham, Dublin, but nothing like the number found in Glencurran Cave. Such necklaces were worn by high-status Viking women and they might denote a woman’s cultural and religious affiliations. These were certainly prestigious items.”

How the Viking necklace got there

The 9th century Viking necklace is believed to have come from Gaelic chieftains from Burren, whom bought the necklace from the town of Limerick and brought it back home.

The Burren National Park is quite small, just about 1500 hectares and the cave in which the necklace was found is located in a remote site of the park.

Dr Dowd says that the park “has been the site of important archaeological discoveries since 2004. It is the largest cave excavation in Ireland and the finds have been enormously significant.”

If you want to read more about this, please visit the following sites:
Remains.se – pictures from Ireland (Donegal, Glencolumbkille, Malinbeg, Enniskillen, Slieve League)
Irish Times
Irish Herald
Independent

The photo of the necklace:  Photo: Thorsten Kahlert, copyright Marion Dowd

- the San Cristobal cathedral in Havana, Cuba

It was the spanish who founded Havana (Habana). The old parts of the city is listed on UNESCO‘s world heritage list. There are a lot of old, american cars driving around on Cuba, but the don’t have the american engines left, they are replaced by Russian made diesel engines.

When we went to Cuba a while ago, we found this old and very beautiful cathedral (Catedral de San Cristóbal de La Havana) next to a very nice square. It looked very dirty at first, but then I realized that it is suppose to look like that. Anyway, the dirty look made it look so beautiful. I went inside to take some pictures, but there was a lot of tourist hanging around that particular day, so I went up in one of the clock towers instead. The stairs was very small and you shouldn’t have any problems with small spaces if you decide to go up there. And the view from up there wasn’t as good as I thought; maybe that is because I had to stop after one stair. There was a bee nest or something, under the next stair, which made me stop. I think I’m allergic to those guys.

I have uploaded 79 photos on the San Cristobal cathedral in Havana, Cuba. You can see them on the main site, http://www.remains.se. A galleri with some of the images you will find under this text. Enjoy!

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- the little country that I love

At last! I’m going back to Estonia in a short while. Hopefully I will be able to drive around and take some pictures. I’d love to go to Narva. The thing is that I thought the coolest part of the fortress there was on the russian side of the border, but I just got the wonderful info that it is in Estonia!

I’m still working on the new design for remains.se, but so far I haven’t come up with anything new. Next step is to upload ALL remaining photos I’ve got, it’s about 5000+ pictures! Gulp.

Well, stay tuned!

- an unique grave ship was recently found by swedish archaeologists.

The viking-aged grave ship’s discovery was placed in Sunnerby, a place clos e to the castle of Läckö, near the lake of Vänern (see a map from the area here) . The ship is probably from the 7th century.  At least two human remains, one young and one old person, was found. It seems to have been a very highly placed person’s funeral.  There was also remains of sacrified animals. The ship was burnt after the funeral.

Only in England has a grave ship like this been found before.

At remains.se, you can find a photo gallery from the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway.

In thursday, Dresden Elbe Valley was removed as a U.N. World Heritage site. It is the the second landmark that has been removed from the list ever. The reason was that a four-lane motorway bridge was built over the river.

Read more at UNESCO’s website

For pictures of castles, forts and other historical remains, visit http://www.remains.se

They did never see each other again.

My brother Rikard took some closeup photos.

Here I will write a short description of my road trips to different historical places, where I take a lot of photos and enjoy the most often beautiful environments. I´m not a professional photographer, but I´m doing as good as I can, to show you how nice those leftovers are. You can read anything about castles and, castles medieval times, medieval castles history, middle ages architecture and other.

Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions! And be sure to visit the “main page”; http://www.remains.se

Kind regards,
Henrik