Neil Hopcroft

On my way back from Aspa and Runtuna I stopped at the small town of Gnesta, this is a small town at the periphery of the SL Stockholm commuter rail system. It reminded me, in some ways, of Fort William, though it is half the size.

As well as the rune stones the small village of Aspa has a beautiful view of the lake – indeed this was, in ancient times, a very important place in Sweden as all of the kings would cross the river here.

The small village of Aspa has a number of rune stones

Standing by a bridge over a brook outside Aspa stand a couple of rune stones.

Outside the small village of Aspa is a brook.

Just outside Taxinge (“home of the young badgers”) lies a castle, but I didn’t find that. Instead I found a cairn marking a medieval burial ground.

Outside Runtuna Kyrka there are a couple of rune stones, one of which is, I believe, Sö 143. “Eyjarr lét gera kuml bæði eptir “Ingulf, son sinn. Hjalpi “Kristr ǫnd hans.”.

Runtuna (Swedish) is a small parish to the north of Nyköping.

From the board at the site (I couldn’t find any information with Google): “Här är ett område fullt av historia. Det börjar med Odens Berg under Järnåaldern och går from till statarnas 1930-tal. Väster om vägen har registrerats ett 60-tal flacka gravar. Vid vägen mot Ärsta ligger ett gravfält med ett 20-tal gravhögar. Att urskilja […]

Walking back from Ulriksdal Slott along the lakeside of Lake Edsviken (Swedish).