Photos

This is a 3rd and last picture of old barns in the province of Hälsingland. The barns are situated just before the Ljusnan River flows into the Arbrå Lakes there is a low-lying delta landscape that is flooded in spring. In the two largest islands the Storholmen and the Kossholmen there are fertile medows.

In the past the medows were owned the framers in the nearby villages. The medows of those islands were through probate divided into narrow stips. Almost every stip had a barn. However, changes in framing methods and water regulation of the river meant that the meadows were abandoned during the years 1950-1970. A small number of barns are still there and from the 1970ies and onwards the remaining barns have been restored and the landscape has been kept open by grazing animals.

Even though this is a kind of natural preserve area administered by the County Coucil, the responsibility for the restoration of the barns still lies with the private owners of them. Even if private owners may more or less interested in restoring them I believe that that the tilting is more the result of the fact that the barns situated in the low-lying delta landscape in the river that is flooded in sprin more than that they are in decay.