THE CLIFFS

The largest and most beautiful cliffs are found along Skovbanke. Beneath the cliff there is a very narrow ledge of large stony beach, which is washed away in stormy weather. As the coastal erosion is very violent, the almost 24 m high and often completely vertical cliff stands without plant cover.

The cliff consists entirely of Ice Age deposits in the form of stony clay, so-called moraine clay, as well as thick amounts of sand and gravel.

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The moraine layer can be seen in several places in the cliff, and usually you will be able to see that there is one layer in the lower part of the cliff and another at the top of the cliff. Each layer of moraine is deposited by a glacier that swept over the island in the last part of the Ice Age, the Weichel Ice Age. The lower moraine layer is the oldest and, by all accounts, was deposited in connection with the glacier that penetrated the country from the north-east approx. 20,000 years ago. Above the moraine clay you will see a thick 'package' of sand and silt (an intermediate between clay and fine sand). The sand and silt are deposited by the meltwater that was formed by the melting of the ice that deposited the lower moraine.

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Towards the top of the 'sand pack' you can see many beautiful structures that show that the layer has been bent and folded by the glacier that advanced over Omø as a re-thrust in the latest part of the Weichel Ice Age and deposited the upper layer of moraines. The moraine layer in the upper part of the cliff was deposited by a glacier that penetrated the country from the south and southeast about 17,000 years ago. In several places, you can see that the moraine contains a stony layer, which almost divides the unit in two. The glacial advance that deposited the upper moraine layer only covered south-eastern Denmark and at the same time marks the end of the ice age.

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On the beach you can see scour marks from the glaciers on many of the large boulders.

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The southernmost part of these cliffs is overgrown with scrub, herbs and grass, and these parts are some of the island's most beautiful. The middle part is made up of bare slopes with thickets on top, and to the north the slopes are again lower and fully vegetated.

The vegetation on the high south-facing slopes is very varied and contains a number of interesting species. Here, there are natural thickets of sea buckthorn, buckthorn, sedge, dog rose and blackberry. These heavily thorny thickets are difficult to navigate, but in between there are such interesting things as small-shelled dodder, rock gorse, smooth rattail, cold rattail, beach onion and colored gooseberry. The dominant grasses are flat-leaved rapeseed, beach fescue, killer oats, quick-leaved and dog grass. Throughout the summer, the cliff takes on different colors according to the currently dominant flowering species.

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There are yellow periods with foal's foot, biting stonewort, yellow snarl and hairy hawkwort. bluish with vetch or field crow's claw and finally a flower carpet of purple knotwort. In addition, there is a touch of English grass, sedge, gray and field gorse, pimpinella, wild chervil and horsetail.

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Above the cliff are thickets of elm and sorrel, rowan, apple, sour cherry and silver poplar. In a few places there are sheltered plantations of mountain pine, sitka spruce and a few poplar species.

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On the northernmost part of the slope are the only growing places for mountain thistle and felted royal candle.

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At the top of the cliff, hundreds of barn swallows have nest holes that are 75 cm deep. Look up and enjoy the teeming life of terns flying to and from their nest holes to feed their young.

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The Litorina slope on the east coast

A special type of slope is the low Stone Age slope from Draget to Ørespids. Large areas here are covered with buckthorn and sedge thickets. Characteristic plant for this stretch is rose cat cheese. In a single place there is a small stand of chicory, which is also found along several of the island's roads.

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Beach overdrive

Beach pastures are well developed along the north coast between Kirkehavn and Revspids, along the west coast from Lillemose towards the lighthouse and in particular on the coastal stretch between the lighthouse and Ørespids. The overhangs are formed on the low seawalls, which occur along the coast in several partly leveled rows. The substrate is pebbles mixed with sand and seaweed, and on top of this washed-up material, a thin layer of soil has formed over time. In dry summers, they are consequently very sweaty, but in early summer they are especially characterized by a rich vegetation.

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