Dole­ri­te is the name of the hard rock that we find on top of the tab­le mountains.

On Hal­le­berg and Hun­ne­berg the dole­ri­te­lay­er is around 60 metres thick, and it pro­tects the soft, under­ly­ing rocks of sand­sto­ne and alum sha­le. Dole­rite­is an igne­ous rock, which means that it was cre­a­ted from mag­ma from bene­ath the Earth’s crust. Around 300 mil­li­on years, mag­ma for­ced its way up through cracks in the sur­rounding lay­ers of rock and spre­ad hori­zon­tal­ly between lay­ers of sedi­men­tat shal­lo­wer levels.

When the hot mag­ma coo­led and soli­di­fi­ed, the dole­ri­tecrac­ked in many pla­ces, some­ti­mes for­ming hex­a­go­nal columns. This gave rise to the pil­lars, clefts, hol­lows and “caves” that can be seen along the sides of the mountains today.

On nort­hern Hal­le­berg, the­re is a crack in the dole­ri­te that widened over time into a val­ley. This divi­des the most nort­her­ly part of Hal­le­berg – Hal­lesni­pen – from the sout­hern part, and is known as Ovan­da­len. The nut­ri­ent-rich morai­ne soil has led to a very diver­se her­ba­ce­ous flo­ra and bro­ad­le­af wood­land. Hal­lesni­pen is a natu­re reser­ve that is most­ly cove­red by pine wood­land. At the far end of Hal­lesni­pen the­re is a fan­tastic view from one of the dole­ri­te­stacks out over Lake Vanern.

NOTE! Ple­a­se remem­ber to walk care­ful­ly near the edge of the mountain. The­re is a sign­pos­ted trail to both Ovan­da­len and Predikstolen.

Hit­ta Hit

Ovan­da­len and Hal­lesni­pen is a part och the natu­re reser­ve of Hal­le- och Hun­ne­bergs platåer