Aalborg afternoon · Fyrkat

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Aalborg

   Aalborg sits on the Limfjord, the broad, shallow waterway that cuts across northern Jutland and turns the northern tip of Denmark into an island, and the city has always been shaped by the water. It was a medieval trading town on the narrowest crossing, and today a bridge and a tunnel carry traffic over the fjord to Nørresundby on the north bank. The waterfront has been redeveloped with a promenade, a concert hall and the Utzon Center, designed by the architect of the Sydney Opera House, who had family roots in the area, and the old brick warehouses are full of cafes and bars.

   Read the complete Aalborg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Aalborg is where the day begins. Next is Viking-Age Ring Fortresses.

2. 2. Viking-Age Ring Fortresses

   Around the year 980, King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark, the man who claimed on the great Jelling stone to have made the Danes Christian, built a series of perfectly circular fortresses across his kingdom, with ramparts laid out in precise geometric plans, gates at the four points of the compass and long houses arranged in squares inside. Aggersborg, on the northern shore of the Limfjord near Løgstør, was the largest of them, with a diameter of some two hundred and forty metres, and it is one of the Viking-Age Ring Fortresses listed by UNESCO in 2023, along with Fyrkat, Trelleborg, Nonnebakken and Borgring.

   Read the complete Viking-Age Ring Fortresses write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Viking-Age Ring Fortresses comes up about 50 km into the recorded legs. Next is Aggersborg.

3. 3. Aggersborg

   Aggersborg is the giant of the Danish ring forts, and it is hard to appreciate until you see how much of it you cannot see. The circle, about 240 metres across, was twice the width of Fyrkat, with twelve gates, a rampart of earth and timber, and about forty-eight longhouses inside, set out in the same regular pattern of four-house groups. It was built around 980, in the reign of Harald Bluetooth, on a high bank above the Limfjord at one of its narrowest crossings, and it is thought to have controlled the water route through northern Jutland. A medieval church now stands on the site, and a section of the rampart is visible, along with markers showing where the gates and houses were.

   Read the complete Aggersborg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 51 km into the recorded legs you reach Aggersborg. Next is Fyrkat.

4. 4. Fyrkat

   Around the year 980, Harald Bluetooth, king of the Danes, built a ring of fortresses across his kingdom, and Fyrkat is the best-preserved of them. It is a perfect circle of earth and timber rampart about 120 metres across, with four gates at the compass points and streets crossing in the middle, and inside the ring, sixteen longhouses arranged in groups of four around a square. Tree-ring dating of the timbers points to the early 980s, and the neat plan and the way it echoes the other ring forts at Trelleborg and Aggersborg suggest a single royal design. Why the forts were built is still argued over, though they probably combined military, administrative and royal power at a time when Harald was uniting Denmark and bringing in Christianity.

   Read the complete Fyrkat write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Fyrkat, about halfway. Next is back through Aggersborg.

5. 5. back through Aggersborg

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Aggersborg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Aggersborg sits at 167 km, about halfway. Next is back through Viking-Age Ring Fortresses.

6. 6. back through Viking-Age Ring Fortresses

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Viking-Age Ring Fortresses write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Viking-Age Ring Fortresses comes up about 184 km into the recorded legs. Next is Aalborg.

7. 7. Aalborg

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Aalborg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Aalborg closes the day.