Jät­ta­da­len*

Jät­ta­da­len is a deeply cut stream ravi­ne sur­roun­ded by steep mountain walls. From atop Jättadalen’s steep cliffs, you have a spectacu­lar view of the enti­re Val­le­byg­den, all the way to Kinnekulle.

At the bot­tom of the ravi­ne is Offer­käl­lan, a well­spring to which peop­le used to tra­vel from afar to bene­fit from its magi­cal healing waters. For many, many years peop­le have offe­red coins to the spring, which it sup­po­sed­ly swallowed. 

Along the path in Jät­ta­da­len, you can see the two top lay­ers of rock in the tab­le mountains: clay sha­le and dole­ri­te. Clay sha­le is a sedi­men­ta­ry rock for­med from lit­hi­fi­ed clay sedi­ment. Dole­ri­te, which we find at the top of the ravi­ne, is an igne­ous rock, which means that it was cre­a­ted from mag­ma from bene­ath the Earth’s crust. Around 300 mil­li­on years ago, mag­ma for­ced its way up through fractu­res in the sur­rounding rocks. When the hot mag­ma coo­led and soli­di­fi­ed as dole­ri­te, it crac­ked, usu­al­ly for­ming hex­a­go­nal columns, but also much long­er fis­su­res. This is what gave rise to the distin­cti­ve appea­ran­ce of the mountain slo­pes, with their columns, cre­vices, caverns, and caves.

You can reach Jät­ta­da­len via the Bil­ling­en Trail which runs abo­ve the val­ley, but also from the par­king lot down by Öglun­da church.