The oak forest
Veteran trees more than four hundred years old.
Public domain · Arild — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Bengt Nyman from Vaxholm, Sweden — CC BY 2.0
Some thirty thousand islands, islets and skerries running east of Stockholm into the Baltic — among the largest archipelagos in the world. The inner islands are inhabited and green with forest and red summer houses; the outer ones are bare rock exposed to the sea. Visiting is by ferry: Waxholmsbolaget runs a full network from the Stockholm quay, and a day ticket allows island-hopping. The best known are **Vaxholm**, the nearest, then **Grinda**, **Sandhamn** and **Fjäderholmarna**, only twenty minutes from the centre. The full season runs June to August, with a much reduced timetable outside it.
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Bogesund Castle stands east of Stockholm near the town of **Vaxholm**, at the entrance to the Stockholm archipelago — a white early seventeenth-century house between the water and a large forest. It was built between 1640 and 1650 for the chancellor Per Brahe the Younger, and is among the purest examples of the **late Vasa castle**: a plain rectangular block with corner towers and a pitched roof, almost without ornament. It stayed in one family's hands for centuries until the state bought it in 1946. But what makes the trip worthwhile is the **Bogesund nature reserve** around it: more than three thousand hectares of old oak forest, meadow and shore, with marked walking paths and veteran trees some of them more than four hundred years old. This is among the largest areas of ancient oak in Sweden. The castle is visited on a guided tour with **very narrow seasonal hours — check before going**; the reserve is free and open all year. About 25 km from Stockholm by bus.
Veteran trees more than four hundred years old.
The gateway to the archipelago, minutes away.
Bogesund, Vaxholm, east of Stockholm