Par force hunting sounds like a French affectation, and it was. The kings of Denmark in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries imported the style from the French court, in which riders on horseback and packs of hounds chased a stag until it was exhausted. To make it work, they needed a landscape designed for speed, and in North Zealand the royal foresters cut long, straight rides through the woods, many of them meeting at star-shaped crossings, so that the hunters could see the quarry and keep control of the chase. The pattern is still visible in the forests of Gribskov and Store Dyrehave, and UNESCO listed the landscape in 2015.
The heart of it is the area around Hillerød, where the great red-brick Frederiksborg Castle stands on three small islands in a lake. It was built by Christian IV in the early seventeenth century and now houses the Museum of National History. Nearby are Fredensborg Palace, still used by the royal family, and Esrum Lake, the largest in the region, with the remains of a medieval monastery at Esrum. The forests are mostly beech, with big, smooth-barked trees, and the rides are used by walkers, cyclists and riders on horseback.
The riding is gentle and varied. Roads run through the forests, past lakes and through small villages, with long, straight sections and the occasional bend, and the surface is generally good. Speed limits are low in the woods, and cameras and police checks are common in Denmark, so keep to them. Be careful at dawn and dusk, as deer cross the road without warning. Spring, with the beech leaf unfolding, and autumn, with the copper colours, are the best seasons.
Hillerød, with about 31,000 people just four kilometres away, is the logical place for fuel, food and a bed, and Lillerød has more shops to the south. Copenhagen is about 35 km to the south-east, so the area makes an easy day out from the capital. Try smørrebrød, the open sandwich on dark rye bread, at a café in town, or a cinnamon pastry from a bakery. Walk a short stretch of a ride, look down the line and imagine the sound of hooves and horns, which stirred this forest a few centuries ago.