Runic inscription:

Frösten raised this stone after Hadska his father

Ornamentation

Red sandstone 125 x 100 cm.
The runestone is unsigned and the rune carver is unknown to me. On the RAÄ website Runes it is attributed to Torbjörn 2

The ornamentation mostly consists of a large cross. The work is carelessly planned and the cross sits asymmetrically on the runestone. The uneven spacing of the runes (sometimes even on top of each other) also indicates poor planning.

Several of the runes are pierced (dotted to determine the sound better), which indicates that the runestone was carved at the earliest in the latter part of the 11th century.

History

The runestone was found in 1868 in the soil below a rock outcrop on Älbys gärde just north of the main road. The original discovery site and the hill it now stands on could be the same, but it is uncertain. What is certain is that the runestone's place of origin is here or nearby.

On a map from 1706, a runestone is marked approximately where it stands today... or is it the missing U 16 that we see on the map?

 

On a map from 1796, the hill is framed and a spring is marked. Here, 4 estates meet: Nyckelby, Älby, Sundby and Nibbla. This should have been a natural meeting place in ancient times, perhaps a bit like a Ting (a courthouse?) 

The back.
The runestone faces south.
 

Tip!
Park at ICA Nyckelby and buy a picnic that can then be enjoyed by the runestone or in Nyckelby's large burial field.

Links:

Upplands runinskrifter > Page 28
(Only Swedish)

Runor >  Riksantikvarieämbetet
(Mostly Swedish)

Google map > Find the runestone.

 

ALL RUNESTONES

Ekerö municipality

ADELSÖ >
has 5 known runestones

BIRKA >
has fragments from 9 known runestones

MUNSÖ >
has 3 or 4 known runestones

EKERÖ >
has 11 known runestones

FÄRINGSÖ >
has 27 known runestones

LOVÖ >
has 8 known runestones