LINNÉSTIGARNA I UPPSALA

During the 1740s, Carl Linnaeus introduced highly popular excursions into his teaching, which he entitled Herbationes Upsalienses. Vaksala tull was the start of Herbatio Waxalensis. Linnaeus took his students over hills and meadows out to Eke and Jälla. The trail concluded in Törnby.

Today’s trail starts in Nyby, since the land around Uppsala has been altered by such things as the new motorway. It links up with the historical stretch later on instead. Linnaeus himself rambled along Vaksalagatan past Gränby, where his daughter would later live. She is buried at Vaksala church and in the space by her estate is now the Gränby Linnaeus memorial, a monument to Linnaeus’s daughters and female botanists of the 18th century.

Eke meadow was in the marsh where the new E4 freeway now passes, north of the Östhammar road. At Eke meadow is the water division to Samnan, which runs out into the River Funboån and River Fyrisån. The Jälla meadow starts from here. In those days, these were wetlands where hay was made for animals. Today they have been drained as arable land.

Törnby grove is chiefly known as Linnaeus’s classic site for studying plants and insects. Linnaeus had his prebendary estate at Törnby. A prebendary estate is an estate whose income finances a professor’s salary. This led to Törnby grove being amongst the areas around Uppsala which are best researched. West of the estate, a pronounced slope rises up with a prominent bedrock structure. This slope is called Hinhålesträdan and consists of Uppsala granite with typical banking with the various banks looking like ”the ridges of a newly ploughed patch”. Its folk name means that none other than Hinhåle (the devil) could have ploughed these furrows. ”Träda” is Swedish for a field in its fallow year.