Why this ride
524 km from Hobro to Hobro, about 9 h 36 of riding. It goes by way of Viking-Age Ring Fortresses, Knudeklint, Hanklit and Aggersborg. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Fyrkat and Aggersborg
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 524 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 9 h 36
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Viking-Age Ring Fortresses.
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 42 km in. Next is Knudeklint.
3. Knudeklint
Fur is a small island in the Limfjord in northern Jutland, reached by a short ferry crossing, and on its northern coast, the cliffs of Knudeklint show one of the most remarkable geological sections in Denmark. The cliffs are made of moler, a light, porous clay formed from the skeletons of countless tiny algae, diatoms, that settled on the bottom of a sea some fifty-five million years ago. Through the pale moler run dark bands of volcanic ash, around a hundred and eighty of them, from eruptions in the North Atlantic as the ocean opened between Greenland and Europe. The layers have been folded and tilted by the glaciers of the ice age, creating dramatic patterns in the cliff face.
Read the complete Knudeklint write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
84 km in you reach Knudeklint. Next is Hanklit.
4. Hanklit
Hanklit is a cliff on the island of Mors, in the Limfjord, the broad, shallow fjord that cuts across northern Denmark and turns Jutland into an island. The cliff is made of moler, a grey-white clay full of diatoms, the tiny silica shells of ancient algae, laid down on the seabed some fifty-five million years ago, and the layers are interleaved with bands of black volcanic ash from eruptions in what is now the North Sea region. The folding of the strata, which were pushed and twisted by glaciers during the Ice Age, makes the cliff look like a layered cake that has been dragged sideways. Fossils of fish, insects, plants and birds are found in the moler, and it is quarried for insulating bricks and cat litter.
Read the complete Hanklit write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hanklit, about halfway. Next is Aggersborg.
5. 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 sits at 167 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hanklit.
6. back through Hanklit
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hanklit write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Hanklit comes up 209 km in. Next is back through Knudeklint.
7. Back to 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
251 km in you reach back through Knudeklint. Next is back through Viking-Age Ring Fortresses.
8. 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, late in the day. Next is Fyrkat.
9. 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
The route ends here after 334 km.
Leg by leg
Fyrkat to Viking-Age Ring Fortresses
Fyrkat → Viking-Age Ring Fortresses is 68 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Viking-Age Ring Fortresses to Knudeklint
Viking-Age Ring Fortresses → Knudeklint is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Knudeklint to Hanklit
Knudeklint → Hanklit is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hanklit to Aggersborg
Hanklit → Aggersborg is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Aggersborg to back through Hanklit
Aggersborg → back through Hanklit is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hanklit to Back to Fyrkat
back through Hanklit → Back to Fyrkat is 90 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Viking-Age Ring Fortresses to Fyrkat
back through Viking-Age Ring Fortresses → Fyrkat is 68 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj and Fyrkat · 224 km
- Hanklit and Fyrkat · 237 km
- Hanklit and Aggersborg · 353 km
- Viking-Age Ring Fortresses and Hanklit · 242 km