Mästermyr is a, now mostly drained,

mire A peatland is a type of wetland whose soils consist of Soil organic matter, organic matter from decaying plants, forming layers of peat. Peatlands arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, du ...

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 Provinces of Sweden, province/Counties of Sweden, county (Swedish län), Municipalities of Sweden, municipality, a ...

, Sweden. The

Mästermyr chest The Mästermyr chest is a Viking Age (789–1066) tool chest found in the Mästermyr mire west of Hemse on the island of Gotland, Sweden. It is the largest tool find from that era in Europe. History During the Viking Age, the area where Mäster ...

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 seabi ...

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 historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

hillfort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

. 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 condu ...

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 medium 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 a ...

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

Steinkjer or is a municipality in Trøndelag Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Innherad Districts of Norway, region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Steinkjer (town), town of Steinkjer which is located on the inne ...

–

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

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

Aalborg Aalborg or Ålborg ( , , ) is Denmark's List of cities and towns in Denmark, fourth largest urban settlement (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an Urban area, urban populati ...

. 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 North Jutlandic Island of Denmark, the east coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea. The Skagerrak contains some of the busiest shipping ...

. Swedish

air defence Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface (Submarine#Armament, submarine-lau ...

fired on the planes and two of them had to make emergency landings, one at Mästermyr and one at

När När is a populated area, a socken (not to be confused with parish), on the Swedish island of Gotland, with 413 inhabitants in 2014. It comprises the same area as the administrative När District, established on 1January 2016. The När Lighthous ...

. The third plane managed to escape and landed on

Bornholm Bornholm () is a List of islands of Denmark, 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. I ...

. In 2008, Swedish

power company The Power Company is a team of superheroes-for-hire in the DC Comics universe. The team, created by Kurt Busiek and Tom Grummett, first appeared in '' JLA'' #61 (February 2002). They subsequently starred in an eponymous series that ran for eigh ...

Vattenfall Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational corporation, multinational electrical power industry, power company owned by the List of government enterprises of Sweden, Swedish state. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germa ...

initiated a project to build a

wind farm A wind farm, also called a wind park 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 turbines covering an exten ...

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