Silvergrottan

Silvergrottan is the odd one out among Kullaberg's sea caves: not a cave at all but a mine. It is a straight tunnel about 15 meters long and barely 70 centimeters wide at the mouth, cut into the cliffs just below Kullen Lighthouse at the tip of Kullaberg. Bring a light and you can walk in between walls that miners hacked out more than 450 years ago.

The silver that never was

In 1561, when Skåne still belonged to Denmark, a miner from Danzig (Gdańsk) won King Frederick II's permission to mine on Kullaberg, convinced that the rock held silver ore. Work began at once, and at about the same time the first light was lit on the point above. The miners followed a vein of pale, coarse pegmatite that glitters with mica. In 1571, after the Northern Seven Years' War, another miner got the king's leave to carry on, but no silver was ever found, and the mine was abandoned.

In Danish times it was called Sölvpickarhåled, roughly "the silver-picker's hole"; the name Silvergrottan came later. Carl Linnaeus came by on his journey through Skåne in 1749, noted that nothing pointed to silver and found scurvy grass growing on the walls. When scientists dug into the floor in 1902 hoping for Stone Age finds, they found nothing at all.

What you'll see

• The tunnelstraight walls of gneiss, with the miners' pale pegmatite in the roof and floor
• The glitterabove the entrance, big white and silvery crystals show what fooled the miners
• Black rockon the way down you cross a broad band of almost black amphibolite

Getting there

From naturum, take the path west toward Kullens västra fyr, the little white light down on the rocks. Just before the square wooden viewing platform, a sign points the way to Silvergrottan; from there, follow the white marks on the stones down to the cave. Allow about an hour for the 1.6 km there and back from Fyrparkeringen.

Good to know

• Steep and rockyat its steepest the path drops at almost 40 degrees, over rock that is slippery when wet
• Bring a lightthe tunnel is narrow and dark