East Wall Area 2D and Crooked Wall Area 4

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. East Wall Area 2D

   For anyone who likes to see how a frontier was really made, the East Wall of the Danevirke is a good place to stand. It is a long rampart running north-south across the base of the Jutland peninsula, a bank of earth and clay, with traces of timber and later brick, and in the section by Windeby you can see it as a low ridge across the fields. The Danes built and rebuilt it over several centuries, and it was one of the largest construction projects of the early medieval north.

   Read the complete East Wall Area 2D write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   East Wall Area 2D is where the day begins. Next is Kovirke Area 8.

2. 2. Kovirke Area 8

   Kovirke is the name of one of the oldest sections of the Danevirke, the great earthwork that guarded the southern border of Denmark for the better part of a thousand years. From the early eighth century, the Danes built ramparts, ditches and later brick walls across the narrow neck of land between the Baltic and the North Sea, and the system grew in stages. Neighbouring sections have names of their own, the Crooked Wall among them, and the Kovirke is among the earliest. The line runs through fields and woodland, a long bank that you can see best in the low light of morning or evening.

   Read the complete Kovirke Area 8 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Kovirke Area 8 comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Crooked Wall Area 4.

3. 3. Crooked Wall Area 4

   Here the ground is flat, wet and green, and a long, low bank runs across it for no obvious reason. The bank is the Krummwall, the Crooked Wall, one of the oldest sections of the Danevirke, the great system of ramparts that the Danes built across the neck of the Jutland peninsula against their southern neighbours. The first banks go back to the early Middle Ages, and the line was added to and rebuilt for centuries, in timber, earth and brick, until the nineteenth century. UNESCO recognised the Danevirke, together with the Viking town of Hedeby, in 2018.

   Read the complete Crooked Wall Area 4 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 33 km into the recorded legs you reach Crooked Wall Area 4. Next is back through Kovirke Area 8.

4. 4. back through Kovirke Area 8

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kovirke Area 8 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Kovirke Area 8, late in the day. Next is East Wall Area 2D.

5. 5. East Wall Area 2D

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete East Wall Area 2D write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at East Wall Area 2D. That is the ride.