Deep in a Kentucky forest about half an hour south of Louisville, a pregnant giant leans against a tree while her two kids wander the woods nearby, one staring at his own reflection in a pond, the other arranging sticks into a giant feather. They’re not real, obviously — they’re wooden trolls named Mama Loumari, Little Nis, and Little Elina, built by Danish recycling artist Thomas Dambo for Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Clermont, Kentucky. They’ve been quietly outliving their expected shelf life ever since.
Who Are Mama Loumari, Little Nis, and Little Elina?
These three larger-than-life sculptures were made by recycling artist Thomas Dambo who was commissioned to create the wooden giants for the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest’s 90th anniversary. They aren’t random monsters — the giants were created as a family, and each has its own unique name: Mama Loumari, Little Nis, and Little Elina. The father of the little giants, Isak Heartstone, can be found along the Trollstigen Trail in Breckenridge, Colorado. So this is technically a family split across two states, which is a strange thing to type out loud but here we are.
Dambo wrote a “fairytale” for the giants called “While the Weather Got Better,” a poem that provides a backstory for the new “family” living in Bernheim, in which the mother giant, Mama Loumari, is expecting a new baby and rests against a tree while her two children, Little Nis and Little Elina, take their time exploring the forest’s pools and rocks. It’s part of a much larger, ongoing story Dambo has been building for years — a larger fairytale that connects an interconnected family of trolls living all over the world, in South Korea, Germany, Puerto Rico, and now Kentucky.
Mama Loumari
You’ll find Mama Loumari toward the end of the loop, settled into a little camp of her own. She’s the expectant mother of Little Nis and Little Elina, reclining under a cluster of tall trees near a sacred circle, where the artist has created a detailed camp including a collection of pine cones, a wooden skull, and various places for humans to sit. Look closely and you’ll spot her altar — it includes a unicorn’s horn and a dragon’s head, items pulled from Scandinavian folklore involving trolls. Her body tells its own story of reuse, too: bourbon barrel staves form the round belly of the pregnant troll. In bourbon country, that detail lands just right.
Little Nis
Little Nis is usually the first troll visitors meet. He’s the first giant you’ll come across when trekking through Bernheim — walk out of the Visitors Center, down a hill, and around the lake, and there he is. He’s posed leaning over the water at Holly Pond, and according to one visitor account, envisioning Little Nis making his way through the cluster of trees near the water’s edge takes little imagination — his position, leaning over his reflection in the water, reads as naturally inquisitive. Kids tend to gravitate to him first, probably because he looks like he’s mid-thought, not just standing there for a photo.
Little Elina
Elina is the artsy one of the bunch. Following the path along a little ways through a swampier area, across a bridge, and into a clearing brings you to Little Elina, who loves art and has shown off her skills by arranging a bunch of natural materials into a giant feather. She’s tucked into a field rather than the woods, so she gets more open sky around her than her brother does by the pond.
Why Was This Troll Family Built in Kentucky?
The trio wasn’t a random art drop — it was tied to a milestone. Thomas Dambo’s trolls were commissioned as part of Bernheim’s 90th anniversary celebration, located in the research forest and arboretum in Clermont, Kentucky. The forest itself has a story worth knowing before you go looking for giants in it. Bernheim was founded by Isaac W. Bernheim, a former bourbon distiller, art patron, and philanthropist who dedicated the 16,000-acre tract of woodlands to the people of Kentucky as a gift in 1929, believing that through the lens of art, people can develop deeper connections with nature. A century later, giant recycled trolls fit that mission almost too perfectly.
Dambo’s whole practice is built around trash with dignity. He’s described the beautiful aesthetic in the idea that someone cut down a tree to make something in wood that was then discarded, and now he puts that wood back in a forest as a big, beautiful sculpture — a reminder that we should think twice before we discard things, because they could become something magnificent. In Bernheim’s case, that trash had local roots: the forest giants are constructed completely of wood recycled from local resources, from the forest itself to wooden pallets to discards from the Louisville Slugger plant nearby.
How Long Have They Been There?
These sculptures were never meant to be permanent. They were expected to remain in place for 3-5 years when they debuted, and the giant trolls are expected to live at Bernheim for three years according to early reporting. That window has clearly stretched — visitor reviews and Bernheim’s own site confirm the trolls were still drawing crowds well into 2025 and 2026, years past that original estimate. Wood sculptures left outdoors don’t last forever, so if you’ve been meaning to go, don’t wait indefinitely.
The crowds were bigger than anyone predicted from the start. The sculptures were so popular over spring break that administrators had to briefly close the place after turnout surpassed all of their wildest expectations, just weeks after debuting for Bernheim Forest’s 90th anniversary celebration. Half a year in, the numbers hadn’t cooled off: Bernheim’s communications and marketing manager said the giants’ purpose was to attract people who otherwise may not have visited and connect them with nature, and that they’d caused attendance to increase 200 percent over the year.
How Do You Find the Bernheim Forest Giants?
Bernheim built an entire trail around the family. This short loop trail winds through a quiet section of Bernheim Forest, leading to the three massive wooden sculptures, a 2.3-mile out-and-back route near Clermont, Kentucky, generally considered an easy route taking an average of 46 minutes to complete. The path itself is part of the experience: expect a mix of paved path, gravel, and packed dirt as the route moves through open prairie, young forest, and small wetland areas, with the giants tucked into different parts of the woods so each turn brings a new reveal, and deer, songbirds, and butterflies commonly seen along the way.
If a 2-mile round trip with kids sounds like a lot, there’s a shortcut. You can take the scenic loop from the Visitor Center to spot all three along the trail, or, if you’re short on time, drive to each of the troll locations instead — as you drive the loop, Little Nis will be the first troll you spot by the pond.
Getting in the gate won’t cost you much. The address is 2075 Clermont Rd, Clermont, KY 40110, with a suggested donation of $15 per car — though other recent visitor reports put the suggested donation closer to $10, so bring some flexibility along with your walking shoes. Grab a printed map at the Visitor Center before you set out; the trail markers and giant footprints painted along the path make it hard to get lost, but the map helps you decide whether to walk the whole loop or drive between stops.
Worth the Trip?
Bernheim doesn’t need trolls to be worth visiting — it’s a genuinely enormous forest with fire towers, canopy walks, and dozens of miles of trails on its own. But there’s something about rounding a bend in the woods and finding a two-story wooden woman resting against a tree, bourbon-barrel belly and all, that turns an ordinary hike into a story you actually want to tell people. Go see the family while they’re still standing. Wood doesn’t last forever, and neither does a good excuse to wander into the woods looking for giants.
NOTE TO THE ADVENTURER: This guide is meant to spark curiosity for what lies beyond the horizon — not to serve as a guarantee. Roads fall into disrepair, buildings are torn down and rebuilt, and properties change hands; 'tis your responsibility to do your own research before setting out. Always heed local and regional law, and always respect ground that isn't your own. Take every entry here as a suggestion, not a decree. This guide's contents were gathered with the aid of artificial intelligence, and like any scout, it will from time to time lead you astray. You assume all risk in following its counsel, and neither this blog nor its author is liable for any loss, injury, or misfortune that results.
