As I have been working to recreate the route that Birgitta followed on her 1339 pilgrimage to Trondheim (known then as Nidaros), I have pored over Google Earth to get a better idea of distance and terrain. In writing about an encounter that happened soon after the pilgrims departed from Ulvåsa, their home in Ostergotland, I came across a photo of the ruins of their estate:

This is everything I need for imagining her life there 700 years ago – the soft green grass, the stone walls connected by an archway with a path leading through the portal to the land and the water beyond.

I am spending so much time in the wildness of my own imagination as I study the life of a very real woman, that this is all it took for me to ground and root into her story and life. Not only can I visualize the years Birgitta spent here, but I can almost hear the sounds of her children and grandchildren here as the lived, worked and played. Back in the day, this was a thriving estate with moats and outbuildings that supported a large community and a number of businesses.

The fortified medieval manor sat on a promontory in Lake Boren now known as Birgittas Udde (Birgitta’s Point). Although it dates back to the 1200’s, Ulvåsa was not actually documented until 1315 when young Birgitta was betrothed and then wed to Ulf Gudmarsson there. Today only the cellar and drained moats survive of the 13th-century stronghold where she and Ulf lived and raised their family.

Photo of the ruins by Stefan Qvarnström as posted on Google Earth in 2024. Photo of the sign to Birgittas udde, next to a St Olavsleden waymark, is by Rommel Paulo Viloan, posted in 2025.