The woods are a production forest, but many old beeches and oaks have been allowed to live. Enjoy your walk or bike ride here – it’s always nice and peaceful.
If you also stay quiet and have your binoculars with you, you can see many birds, such as the beautiful common kingfisher, the great spotted woodpecker, the nuthatch and, of course, sparrows.
If you are here at dawn or dusk, you might be able to spot the short-eared owl hunting for prey.
These woods have played an important role in people’s lives since the Romantic era in the 19th century.
This is where people went for a walk on Sundays, and where young people went dancing in the forest pavilion.
In the 1980’s, a new brick building replaced the old wooden pavilion after a fire. You can also see the newly established Rose Park with many beautiful roses and the oldest tree in North Funen, a beautiful, big 300-year-old oak. The oak was named an eternity tree in 1923 by the Danish Society for Nature Conservation, and, as such, it must be protected and kept alive as long as possible.
There's also a fun nature playground in the Fredskov woods - so you can bring your family for a picnic!
What is a fredskov?
The Fredskov Ordinance was established under King Christian the 7th in 1805. At that time, only 4% of Denmark was covered by forest, so the purpose was partly to preserve the existing forest and partly to increase the forest areas. Larger forest areas were needed to get enough timber when Denmark was attacked by England, which stole the Danish navy in 1807 after terror-bombing the capitol Copenhagen for five days. This meant they had to cut down a considerable part of the Danish forests to have enough timber for a new fleet.
The concept of the fredskov was therefore to plant new forest instead of the one that was felled. It has since developed, but the essence is still that you as a forest owner are in your good right to cut down the forest, as long as you plant trees to replace it in the same area. It is the land use that is protected, not the trees.
