On Bornholm there has also been digging for coal – black coal. In Hasle Lystskov there are clear traces of the old coal mines. The area where some of the coal digging took place is today a beautiful little lake in the forest, the Ruby Lake.
Here, deep mine shafts were dug to find coal. But it wasn’t just coal that was brought out of the ground, there were also a lot of waste products like sand, gravel, clay and coal dust. However, the clay was used for clinker manufacture, as it was of a very fine quality.

These waste products had to be disposed of, and this was done by driving them in tippers from the forest down to the coast. Here there were steep slopes and the waste products were just emptied over the edge, and the area was named Kultippen. But as mining continued for a number of years, it also brought in large quantities of sand, gravel and coal dust, which eventually formed a whole new coastline.

Mining has long since ceased, but the cult remains. The area is very special, it almost looks like a lunar landscape. Not much grows, like a blade of grass, there are deep crevices and steep slopes.

During World War II, when fuel was scarce, many people from nearby areas went down to the beach to collect pieces of coal to use in their stoves. But the coal they collected was of very poor quality, often because it had been left in the water and washed up on the beach. When you fired the coal, you could smell it from far away, and there was almost more ash than there had been coal. The coal that was extracted from underground, on the other hand, was of quite good quality. The calorific value in the pure state was 4 – 5,000 calories in contrast to the Jutland coals, which were brown coal, their calorific value was only about 2,500 calories.

Today, when you walk on the beach at Sorthat or Levka, you can easily find pieces of coal of different sizes.