Mästermyr is a, now mostly drained,

mire A mire, peatland, or quagmire is a wetland area dominated by living peat-forming plants. Mires arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, due to water-logging and subsequent anoxia. All types o ...

west of

Hemse Hemse is a locality situated on the Swedish island of Gotland with 1,700 inhabitants in 2014. It is the second largest locality (after Visby) on the island. Hemse is the main center of population in the southern part of the island, and it is know ...

on the island of

Gotland Gotland (, ; ''Gutland'' in Gutnish), also historically spelled Gottland or Gothland (), is Sweden's largest island. It is also a province, county, municipality, and diocese. The province includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to th ...

, Sweden. The Mästermyr chest was found here in 1936.

Geography

The area of the mire was originally , of which consisted of small lakes. It was a significant habitat for

water bird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from sea ...

s and the lakes were used for fishing. A suggestion about draining the mire was first presented in 1898. The mire was drained in 1902–10. Some of the lakes that dried up were ''Tunngansträsk'', ''Storträsk'', ''Nydträsk'', ''Risalaträsk'' and ''Eskesträsk''. Just south of the mire is the Havor

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post- Rom ...

. At the time it was built, the mire was still lakes and the fort was located on the shore of one of these. In 1961, an

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be cond ...

of the hillfort lead to the discovery of the Havor Hoard.

History

As part of a national program for public works to reduce unemployment in 1920–21, a total of of roads were constructed at Mästermyr. By the 1930s, of the former mire was cultivated. On 21April 1940, a German aircraft

Heinkel He 111 The Heinkel He 111 is a German airliner and bomber designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Through development, it was described as a " wolf in sheep's clothing". Due to restrictions placed on Germany after t ...

was forced to make an emergency landing at Mästermyr. It was one of three planes en route to bomb the

Steinkjer Steinkjer is a municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Innherad region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Steinkjer which is located on the inner part of the Trondheimsfjord. The town is also the ...

–

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, an ...

railway in Norway. Due to cloudy weather they had to abort and return to

Aalborg Aalborg (, , ) is Denmark's fourth largest town (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an urban population of 143,598 (1 July 2022). As of 1 July 2022, the Municipality of ...

. The navigators had been given faulty information about the prevailing wind conditions and when they broke through the clouds, the planes were over Gotland instead of

Skagerrak The Skagerrak (, , ) is a strait running between the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, the southeast coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea area through the Danish Straits to the Baltic Sea. T ...

. Swedish

air defence Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...

fired on the planes and two of them had to make emergency landings, one at Mästermyr and one at När. The third plane managed to escape and landed on

Bornholm Bornholm () is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland. Strategically located, Bornholm has been fought over for centuries. It has usually been ruled by ...

. In 2008, Swedish

power company An electric utility is a company in the electric power industry (often a public utility) that engages in electricity generation and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. The electrical utility industry is a major pr ...

Vattenfall Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational power company owned by the Swedish State. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The company's name is Swedish for " waterfall", a ...

initiated a project to build a

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind tur ...

on Mästermyr. The plans were stopped through a decision made by the Swedish Land and Environment Court in July 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mastermyr Gotland Bogs of Sweden Archaeological sites in Sweden World War II sites in Sweden Landforms of Gotland County