Alunda

Uppland's ancient land with roots in the Stone Age

Alunda is located in Östhammar municipality in Uppsala County, on a ridge between two plains crossed by the rivers Foghammarsån and Kilbyån. The locality belongs to the historic province of Uppland and is one of the parishes with the densest ancient remains in Sweden – in Alunda parish archaeologists have documented up to 5,000 ancient remains from various epochs.

Perhaps the most famous archaeological find from the area is the Alunda Elk – a stone axe in greenstone from the younger Stone Age (dated to 4200–3200 BC) one end of which is shaped like a beautiful elk head. The axe was found by a ditch in the village of Norrlövsta and is today kept at the Museum of History in Stockholm, but is one of the objects most strongly associated with Alunda's prehistory.

Alunda church, whose oldest parts date from the 1200s, is a majestic cruciform church building in stone. Outside the church stand three rune stones (U 1126, U 1127 and U 1128) and the interior is decorated with lime paintings by Johannes Iwan.

Things to do in and around Alunda

Alunda is well suited as a base camp for excursions to the surrounding farmland and to Österbybruk, one of Sweden's best-preserved Walloon ironworks communities, located a couple of Swedish miles to the south. Österbybruk's 1700s manor is surrounded by a lime-tree avenue, an orangery garden and a Walloon forge, and adjoining the works park run 18 kilometres of marked nature trails. Dannemora mine, with the possibility of visiting the historic ice mine via a via ferrata, is another nearby excursion destination.

Alundabadet's bathing spot by Lake Vällen offers summer swimming in beautiful natural surroundings.

How to get here

Alunda is reached via county road 288 from the east from Uppsala, about 30 minutes' drive. From Stockholm it takes about 1.5 hours by car north towards Uppsala and then east. Bus connections with UL serve the Uppsala–Alunda–Östhammar route regularly.