For a long time people believed that Renda was the site of the southernmost “Devil’s boat” – an archaeological type of monument that is known in Latvia in a narrow territory around Valdemārpils. The style was characteristic of the late Bronze Age, where the remains of people who were cremated were placed into clay urns and then buried inside a pile of rocks aimed at symbolising a ship. After an archaeological field trip in 2000 that was led by University of Latvia Professor Andrejs Vasks, however, it was found that the rocks at Renda were not another rock boat. Instead it was an ancient burial mount with piles of rocks. A dig found antique items, including a bronze spiral ring, the tip of an iron spear, tiny beads and a Roman coin. These were all typical of the first centuries AD. It is most likely that the graves were used to bury ancestors of Baltic Finns who began to move North even before the Curonians did. 500 m away toward the centre of Renda visitors will find another interesting place – the waterfalls of Īvande. Here you will find the first of two waterfalls, which is about two metres high and 10 m wide. If you walk 200 m along the little river upstream, you will find the other one, which is the waterfall of Valdāti. It is 1,5 m high and 5 m in width. Between the two waterfalls there is a much smaller waterfall. Both of the waterfalls involve Devonian sandstone and dolomite. The waterfalls are beautiful not only times of the year when there is much precipitation, but also in the winter, when the waterfalls freeze over and present lovely ice flowers.
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