Small Danish Hotels is now Stays. Only our name has changed. Everything else stays the same.
Hjelholts Uldspinderi
Hjelholts Uldspinderi
Svendborg Landevej 43
5874 Hesselager
Phone: +45 62 25 15 92
Photo: VisitFyn
On South Funen, we have been breeding sheep and lambs for at least 1,000 years. The meat fed us and the wool kept us warm. Even the tough old Vikings needed warmth. But they also needed sails, which they wove out of flax and wool. No wool – no Viking ships. A medium-sized sail took about a year to weave and required wool from around 200 sheep.
As you cycle along the route, you will realise how popular sheep still are here. Many of those you see provide the wool for Hjelholts Uldspinderi. It is a 4th-generation company that has been spinning wool into yarn since 1878. Their products are excellent. If you are a knitter, take a look at their website or, better still, drop by their yarn shop.
Today, Hjelholt has 800 ewes. As well as providing wool for the spinning mill, they also produce around 1,400 lambs every spring. As part of Svendborg municipality’s nature management, the sheep and lambs graze on a number of areas at Glorup Castle and, through collaboration with Rosilde Højgaard, various areas at Holckenhavn Castle.
The result is healthy, happy animals. You can buy or order the organic lamb from Hjelholt in Rosilde Højgaard’s farm shop in Nyborg. It just requires a small detour from the route at Nyborg.
