Haraldsholm Skov, Jels

Haraldsholm Forest is located approx. 2 km north of Jels, i.e. between Jels and Skodborg. The forest area of 154 hectares belongs to the Danish Nature Agency. Haraldsholm Forest has very varied vegetation due to a moist subsoil and previous storms.

Haraldsholm Forest produces mostly beech and conifers, and these types of wood are supplemented with oak, larch, Douglas fir and linden. The choice of tree species is challenged by the fact that the soil under the forest is quite moist, because 30-40 cm down in the ground there is a thick layer of alder that does not allow water to pass through. This is also why you can see quite a lot of ditches in the forest. The northern part of the forest is located on moraine clays covered by a sandbank. So the forest grows on top of the Ice Age landscape. The ice edge – the main standstill line – ran at the western edge of the Jels Lakes a few km from the forest. Back in 1999, the forest was quite damaged by the violent 3 December hurricane, and significant parts of the plantation have been planted thereafter, and here priority has been given to planting deciduous trees. The forest is surrounded  by earthen dikes and to the south a stone dike.

The Ancient Road
The Ancient Road Route today goes through Haraldsholm Forest, and here it follows the forest's own road and path system in a level terrain and relatively straight ahead. This is where you can walk in the cathedral of the forest. You can enjoy the soaring trunks, the flickering light through the treetops' leaves and the whole chorus of birds in your ears. 

The story
Haraldsholm is located in an area that in ancient times was covered by forest – the notorious and feared Farris Forest – which stretched from Ribe to the Little Belt. We know that the area was relatively unpopulated because no churches were built in the forest – but around – during the great church building period in the 1100s.

In Haraldsholm Forest there is a grassy long mound of approx. 1.7 x 8 x 25 meters.

Parallel to the current Hærvej route, the old kleinbahn – narrow-gauge railway between Haderslev and Skodborg has run. These were railways built before reunification in 1920 to ensure transport from the outskirts of the German Empire.