Sunken wrecks

It must be difficult for the people who come to enjoy the fine sandy beaches of Sand-hammaren to imagine that just off the coast is probably the largest graveyard of wrecks in Sweden, the shifting sand bars and strong currents have claimed many thou-sands of unwary vessels.

The ancient oak forests that once flourished here were felled on the orders of King Charles XI. It seems that pirates deceived passing vessels with false lights and thus fooled them into running aground where their crews became easy prey and blood-thirsty plunder was the order of the day.

Light house and lifeboat station

The lighthouse at Sandhammaren was brought into service in 1862; it was desig-ned and built by the famous lighthouse builder Nils Gustaf von Heidenstam.

In the middle of the 19th century one of Sweden’s first lifeboat stations was estab-lished here.

The lifeboat station remained in service until 1945 when it was moved to Kåseberga, however, the old lifeboat, the oldest in Sweden, can still be seen in the old boat house.

A beach of contrasts

A walk along the beach is not just a pleasure on a hot summer’s day, in the winter time when the wind bites you’ll soon realise you are not alone in enjoying the forces of nature along the Baltic coast.

Sometimes the beach is covered in snow and at others hardy blue pansies raise their fragile heads to frighten the winter mists away.

All this makes a walk along the coast a pleasure at any time of year.