It was a cold day in November when we visited Kobbeå and Stavehøl waterfall. The autumn colours were so beautiful.
Stavehøl waterfall is on the Island of Bornholm, Denmark, in the Baltic sea, just south of Sweden.
A “Kobb” is the name of the piece of wood or buoy which cod and salmon lines in the “old days” were tied to. “å” pronounced “Oh” is a small river or big stream. The word became a family name early in the Middle Ages and after the family farm has received it’s name Kobbegård and thus the stream.
At the mouth of the river at Kobbebro (Kobbe Bridge) are found some of the island’s oldest settlements from the Stone Age, and a large Viking Burial ground.
Stavehøl is 7.2 meters high and has a 2 meter wide crevice where the river water pours over with a deafening noise to the pool below 5.6 meters deep. It is not the island’s highest waterfall, but it is beautiful! The somewhat unusual name “Stavehøl” can be traced back to the middle of 1700, when it was referred to the great “Høl” by “Stabbe”. Stabbe is an oldfashioned term for “broken-off tree trunks,” which still stands on roots, and developed mainly in stands of alder. And Høl is a depression in a river where there is water all year! As you find here in the bottom of the waterfall even when the river has run dry.