Lahibiagrottan is one of the best-known of Kullaberg's sea caves, set in a cleft between two walls of reddish rock just south of Kullen Lighthouse. Its floor lies about 7 meters above the sea, and the cave runs about 8.5 meters into the rock, 7 meters wide and 3.5 meters high. From inside you look straight out to sea past the little rock islet Primön, and because the cave faces west, the low sun shines in all the way to the back on summer evenings.
Looking out to sea from inside Lahibiagrottan, with the islet Primön just offshore
Photo: David Castor · CC0A fishermen's camp
Waves carved the cave out of cracked gneiss when the sea stood higher than today, and for most of the Stone Age it lay under water. Excavations in 1902 and 1956 dug through fill that was 2 meters deep in places and found flint and charcoal, and the 1956 dig alone yielded some 16 kilos of bones and shells. Radiocarbon dating shows that people camped here mainly in the late Iron Age, around the 600s–800s, and in the Middle Ages. They came for short spells of fishing in spring and autumn and cooked fish from the sea and meat they brought with them. Among the bones are a porpoise, a harp seal and a great auk, the flightless seabird hunted to extinction in 1844. Shards of red earthenware in the top layer may come from the miners who dug Silvergrottan in the next cove in the 1560s. The flint shows that Stone Age people came by too, and naturum's guide says the cave may have been a temporary shelter in the late Stone Age.
The name Lahibia can be traced back only to around 1900, when the photographer Peter P. Lundh began using it, and no one knows where it comes from. An older name is Bagarugnen, the baker's oven.
Getting there
From Fyrparkeringen, walk toward naturum and Kullen Lighthouse and follow the Red trail past the ice-cream kiosk, southwest toward the Öresund. At the viewpoint above the cave, a sign points the way down. The last stretch is steep, with a rope to hold on to.
Good to know
- Steep way downclimbing down is at your own risk, and the rock is slippery when wet
- Loose rockfallen rock blocks the back of the cave; watch your step among loose stones
