Country
Fossil hunting in Sweden
Swedish Ordovician limestone built the floors of half of northern Europe, and the same stone carries orthocone nautiloids the length of your forearm. Kinnekulle and Oland are the two classic areas, and the county authority publishes the collecting rules in English.
Kinnekulle rises above Lake Vanern in Vastergotland. Old quarries at Kakeled, Hallekis, Osterplana and Raback cut Cambrian alum shale and Ordovician orthoceratite limestone. Trilobites come from the shale and orthocone nautiloids from the limestone.
Oland is flatter and larger, a single slab of Ordovician limestone with pavements exposed across the island. The Cambrian Orsten of Sweden, which preserves tiny arthropods in three dimensions, occurs both here and at Kinnekulle.
The County Administrative Board of Kalmar publishes guidance on fossil gathering and the law, and its current web guidance is what to read before you pick anything up on Oland. An English leaflet from 2005 also circulates, and the board's site is stricter than that leaflet. The best pavements are coastal rather than inside the Stora Alvaret World Heritage area, whose listing is agricultural and carries no fossil rule.
2 fossil sites
Updated 11 September 2026
Kinnekulle Quarries Fossil Hunting Guide
Västergötland, Sweden
Trilobites, Nautiloids, Brachiopods, Graptolites
Öland Ordovician Limestone Fossil Hunting Guide
Öland, Kalmar County, Sweden
Nautiloids, Trilobites, Brachiopods, Bryozoans
Frequently asked questions
- Can you collect fossils in Sweden?
- No, not as a right. The county boards state that loose fossils belong to the landowner and fall outside allemansratten. A single loose piece from a shore may be tolerated, taking quantity or selling is not, hammering fossils out of bedrock is a criminal offence, and in reserves and national parks collecting is always prohibited.
- What fossils are found at Kinnekulle?
- Trilobites from the Cambrian alum shale and orthocone nautiloids from the Ordovician orthoceratite limestone. Old quarries at Kakeled, Hallekis, Osterplana and Raback give access to both.