39 kmHjedding Dairy Museum
The cradle of the cooperative dairy complements the lignite history as concrete local history
Søby Brown Coal Pits is not a neatly designed natural area. It is a hilly, man-made landscape of sand heaps, lakes, scrub and plantations, where the traces of brown coal mining still shape the terrain. That is precisely what makes the place feel so direct: nature has returned, but it does not hide what happened here.
At Søby Brown Coal Museum, the history becomes tangible in workers' homes, the grocery shop, machinery and small details from life in the pits. On Brunkulsvej, you can also see remains of the former barracks town, where the last derelict houses have been left standing as cultural traces. The memorial grove by the museum gives the visit a different weight; it points to the fact that the brown coal adventure was also hard and dangerous work.
Søby Lake lies north of the brown coal pits and stands out from the area's many excavation lakes. It is a natural, privately owned lake, but east of the lake there is a public barbecue and rest area, where it is also possible to swim. In the brown coal pits themselves, you must stay on marked roads and paths. The risk of landslides is part of the reality of the place, especially close to water and in places where sand has been moved around.
The Memorial Grove at Søby Brown Coal Museum consists of 57 memorial stones for workers who lost their lives in the brown coal pits. 45 of the men died in Søby, and 17 were killed in sand slides.
The stones give a sober account of a workplace where the danger came not only from shifting sand, but also from equipment, wells, high voltage, and explosives. Most fatal accidents occurred in the years 1941-1948, when the digging was largely done by hand.
Søby Brown Coal Museum tells the story of the 30 years when brown coal was excavated near Søby from 1940 to 1970. Here, workers’ homes from the 1940s stand side by side with a grocery store, barber shop, dining hall, smithy, and heavy machinery.
The museum began in Tørve Sørens Hus, occupied on the site from 1947 to 1956 and, according to the museum, the only original house on “Skovgade”. The model of a brown coal deposit shows the well, hoist, sorting works, and the practical seriousness of water problems.
The viewpoint is located in the southern part of Søby Brunkulslejer, about 30 metres above the hilly landscape of sand dumps and old pits. From here, it is clear how dramatically brown coal mining has shaped the terrain.
The summit lies on a terminal dump, beneath which no brown coal has been excavated, and the site is therefore considered safe to walk on. The trees are kept low so that the view is preserved in all directions.
