Hultafors combines hiking trails and a forested wilderness area with built heritage from its railway and industrial history. This gives you two distinct themes to consider when planning your trip: landscape and trails on the one hand, and historic buildings and the town’s former functions on the other.

Landscape and Trails

Hultafors mainly consists of a high-lying forest and wilderness area, crossed from east to west by a deep valley. Viaredssjön stretches for just over seven kilometres from Hultafors towards Viared; brown trout are found in Sörån. At Viaredssjön in Hultafors, the Vikhult bathing area has a small beach.

Knalleleden passes through Hultafors and forms part of the hiking trail from Rom to Grövelsjön. At Knalleleden, Fjällaberg serves as a rest stop and offers wide views over lakes and forest areas. Nearby, just outside Hultafors on a section of Sjuhäradsleden, there is a rest stop with a shelter, seating and a barbecue area. Knalleleden passes through the town, while the rest stop on Sjuhäradsleden lies outside it—a useful distinction when considering the town’s trails and its surroundings separately.

Railway Station and Sanatorium

Hultafors railway station was a stop on the railway line between Gothenburg and Borås. The station building was constructed in 1907–09 in the English-inspired villa style, based on a design by Gothenburg architect Yngve Rasmussen. Until 1972, it remained a social hub, with a post office and bank. The building thus brings together architectural design and its former role in everyday life in the town.

Another development in the town’s institutional history was the climate and water-cure institution founded in 1908, which later became Hultafors Sanatorium. The station and sanatorium represent different chapters in the town’s history: the railway stop and former social centre on the one hand, and the development of the sanatorium on the other.

Factory and Hydropower

After the Hultafors measuring-stick factory was relocated to Hultafors, it began operating at the Sörån waterfall in 1907. The current main building, comprising office and factory space, was built in 1939 in the Functionalist style. A small brick building was constructed east of the factory in 1945 as a washhouse; it is part of the factory site’s history. Hultafors Dam also preserves numerous structural traces of hydropower. A supply channel carved into the rock runs 900 metres west from Hultafors Dam to the power station’s inlet. The Hultafors power station building has retained its original Neoclassical form from 1920.

The industrial history therefore spans everything from production and the buildings of the measuring-stick factory to the structural traces of hydropower. In Vikhult, the old sawmill is also K-listed and can still be operated with the help of a tractor. The stone bridge over Sörån is one of Hultafors’s oldest monuments.

Discover more destinations: Töllsjö, Olsfors, Bollebygd

Go to the main travel overview: Bollebygd.