SkogstrolletThe free map for exploring Sweden’s outdoors.

Near Malmö

Nature reserves near Malmö

Malmö Municipality includes parts of 4 nature reserves. Limestone, salt water and industrial remains meet south and west of the city, producing three landscapes with very different histories.

An ancient sea beneath the city

Limhamns kalkbrott measures 1,300 by 800 metres and descends 65 metres. Its limestone accumulated from algae, bryozoans and corals in a warm sea 62 to 65 million years ago. Beds containing shark teeth and the fossils of two crocodiles open a direct window into the ground beneath modern Malmö.

Quarrying continued from 1866 until 1994. Water, calcareous slopes and bare ground then became habitats for more than two thousand recorded species, including green toad, Danish scurvygrass and over 450 beetles. The reserve is a living product of both an ancient sea and modern industry.

Two human-shaped shores

Bunkeflo strandängar is an old grazed coast repeatedly flooded by salt water. This relationship between livestock and sea has continued for more than a thousand years. Offshore, the water remains less than three metres deep for two kilometres, allowing eelgrass meadows to shelter and feed young fish.

Klagshamnsudden was built from lime and cement waste around 1900. Flooded workings, calcareous soil and the coastal setting now support orchids, birds, bats and green toad. Danish iris probably arrived with shipping in the 1890s. Together, the three sites present Malmö’s nature as a meeting of fossil seabed, long grazing history and industrial land acquiring new ecological roles.

Three reserves near Malmö

Limhamns kalkbrott

6.0 km in a straight line from the centre

Limestone geology and species adapted to calcareous ground
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Bunkeflo strandängar

9.1 km in a straight line from the centre

Coastal water, shore meadows and migratory birds
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Map of nature reserves near Malmö