Hilleshögs dalar, Nature reserve in Skåne, Sweden

Hilleshögs dalar is a nature reserve in Landskrona Municipality, Skåne, on the Öresund coast. It consists of a geologically interesting valley and steep landslide slopes down to a stony beach, with layered sand and thin moraine forming the slopes. The photograph shows pale rock and earth in angular ridges, dry grass above and a band of seaweed along the shore.

The valley began as a dead-ice hollow during the last ice age, where the bog Dalamossen now lies. After the ice sheet retreated, soil flow shaped the rest of the valley. The sand layers in the slopes and in neighbouring Glumslöv's hills were pushed up from different directions by the ice and then covered by a thin layer of moraine. On Gåsaägget, just south of Rustningshamn, earthworks from the 1670s and early 1700s remain.

The name Gåsaägget, the hill just south of Rustningshamn, refers to the eider's egg. On that height lie redoubts and sconces from the 1670s and early 1700s, associated with Karl XII's defences. Around 1900 a brickworks operated at Rustningshamn; overgrown clay pits, one now a pond, and quantities of discarded bricks on the beach remain.

From exit 26 (Landskrona N) on the E6, follow signs for Vallåkra, turn left towards Glumslöv after about 600 m, then left again after passing under the E6; a car park lies about 400 m further on. The reserve is in Landskrona Municipality, Skåne, not Småland. Expect steep, loose slopes of sand and clay down to the stony Öresund shore.

The landslide scarps here are called rasbranter; the only comparable landforms in Sweden are on the island of Ven, where they are known as backafall. The sand layers in these scarps and in the neighbouring Glumslöv hills were pushed up by the inland ice from different directions and then covered by a thin layer of moraine.