Aggersborg and Jelling Mounds

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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

   Aggersborg is where the day begins. Next is Fyrkat.

2. 2. 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 comes up about 66 km into the recorded legs. Next is Jelling Mounds.

3. 3. Jelling Mounds

   Denmark's most important field is Jelling, which has two large grass mounds, a medieval church standing between them, and two carved runestones that count among the most important monuments of the country. The stones were raised in the tenth century. The smaller one was made by King Gorm the Old in memory of his wife Thyra, and the larger, with a crucified Christ on one face, was made by his son Harald Bluetooth, who boasted that he had won all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian. That is why it is often called the birth certificate of the nation. Harald's nickname, incidentally, is where the Bluetooth wireless logo comes from, a bind-rune of his initials.

   Read the complete Jelling Mounds write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 204 km into the recorded legs you reach Jelling Mounds. Next is back through Fyrkat.

4. 4. back through Fyrkat

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   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

   back through Fyrkat, late in the day. Next is Aggersborg.

5. 5. 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 at Aggersborg. That is the ride.