Stopping in Ryd town is likely a matter of necessity rather than desire for a traveller. It is a tiny village with a population of under 1,500. Despite this, it has three distinct pizza restaurants, an ICA and two Godis shops. There appear to be no other restaurants, cafes or bars nearby.

Whilst it is the nearest population center to the Bilkyrkogården Kyrkö mosse it is not a base for tourists looking to visit.

Sights & Culture

Bilkyrkogården Kyrkö mosse

The Car Graveyard in Kyrkö bog is a peculiar place by any definition. Åke Danielsson, who was called " Åke of the bog “ lived and worked, breaking peat on the bog and ran a strange car scrapyard as a sideline in the bog where he all the cars. When he left the bog in 1991 (having abandoned the business some ten years before) the cars were left abandoned, but protected from removal by a business licence and over time they have slowly come to ruin.

Left unattended, there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of wrecks ranging from almost whole to completely rusted away. It is not a place for rushing or for unattended children as there are rusted edges and sharp corners everywhere

Many campaigners have pushed for their removal due to the environmental impact of cars rusting and petroleum leaking into the soil, but this has not been actioned.

Instead, the Car Graveyard has become a little known, but strangely popular tourist attraction. There is an eerie silence in the forest area, and along the pathways and further into the bog, you see the remains of cars and trucks, slowly returning to nature.

The forest is thick enough that there is not a great deal of light, so patches of sun illuminate the cars sporadically. The peat breaking hut ant the hut Åke lived in are still there, in better shape than many of the cars. The toilet he used consisted of old oil barrels built into a small shed with a hood as a roof, which also remains.

It remains, for now, as a monument to Åke of the bog and the strangeness of modern life.

Read more about Åke: http://www.jasifil.se/kyrkomosse/