Boolsens Stenhave

A writer’s garden of stones turned open-air collection

Boolsens Stenhave began life as the highly personal project of Danish author Johannes Boolsen, who spent more than three decades collecting striking glacial boulders and rock specimens in his private garden near Bangsbostrand. From 1939 to 1973 he assembled over a thousand stones, arranging them in careful groupings that reflected his fascination with the Ice Age landscape and the region’s geology. In 1973, Boolsen’s property and his stone collection were acquired by the municipality of Frederikshavn. The stones were entrusted to the nearby Bangsbo Museum, which moved and re‑established the garden in the green surroundings by the museum complex. What had once been a private obsession became a public space, allowing anyone to wander between the boulders that had so captivated their collector.

Reading the geology of North Jutland under open skies

Today the garden functions as a calm, outdoor supplement to the cultural attractions at Bangsbo. The stones are arranged in beds and clusters that highlight different rock types and origins, from rounded granite boulders dragged here by ancient ice sheets to layered pieces showing patterns formed deep in the Earth’s crust. Discreet signs help you identify what you are looking at, turning a gentle stroll into a quiet geology lesson. Because the garden is modest in size and fully open‑air, it never feels overwhelming. Instead, you move slowly along grass paths and low borders, noticing shapes, colors, and textures as you go. Children tend to gravitate to the biggest boulders and unusual markings, while those with a scientific bent can linger over labels and structures that illustrate how Denmark’s landscape was shaped.

Within the leafy Bangsbo parkland

Boolsens Stenhave sits in a leafy pocket just by Bangsbo Museum and the surrounding park. Mature trees cast dappled shade across the stones, while the wider area includes lawns, forested slopes, and other themed gardens. Birds provide a gentle soundtrack, and in light wind you hear the rustle of leaves as much as the distant sounds of the town below. The setting makes it easy to combine a visit with time in the adjoining Bangsbo Botanical Garden and the museum’s historic buildings. Benches and low walls offer resting spots where you can sit at eye level with a stone face that has been polished by glaciers, rain, and time. On clear days the light shifts across the rock surfaces, bringing out unexpected colors, flecks of mica, or subtle banding.

A slow, reflective stop in Frederikshavn

A visit to Boolsens Stenhave is unhurried by design. Many guests spend under an hour here, pairing it with a walk through the wider park, while others use the garden as a quiet corner for reflection or sketching. The ground is mostly level and grassy, making it gentle underfoot, though some areas can be soft after rain. There is no spectacle or formal program, only the invitation to look more closely at the material that underlies landscapes and buildings across North Jutland. Whether you treat it as an informal classroom, a scenic shortcut between other sights, or simply a restful pause surrounded by trees and stone, the garden adds a subtly distinctive layer to the Bangsbo experience.

Legacy of Johannes Boolsen

The spirit of its founder remains present in the orderly, almost narrative arrangement of the stones. Boolsen’s choice to gather and categorise these boulders at a time when such private collections were unusual speaks to a personal curiosity about deep time and natural history. By preserving his work in this public garden, Frederikshavn has woven an individual passion into the shared story of the town. Standing among the stones, it is easy to imagine the years of patient searching that went into the collection, each new find hauled home and placed in relation to the last. The result is a space that feels both scholarly and quietly poetic: a reminder that even seemingly inert rocks can carry stories that stretch far beyond a single human lifetime.