Why this ride
429 km from Hobro to Hobro, about 7 h 48 of riding. On the way it passes Viking-Age Ring Fortresses, The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj, Aggersborg and Hanklit. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Fyrkat and Hanklit
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 429 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 7 h 48
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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 about 65 km into the recorded legs. Next is The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj.
3. The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj
On the small, flat island of Mors in the Limfjord, the cliffs are not made of chalk or granite but of a pale grey-white clay, laid down in the sea about fifty-five million years ago. This is the moler, a deposit of diatom earth interleaved with hundreds of thin layers of volcanic ash, and it is one of the best places in the world to find fossils from the early Eocene. Fish, insects, birds and plants have been found here, beautifully preserved, including the bony fish that give the site its name.
Read the complete The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 112 km into the recorded legs you reach The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj. Next is Aggersborg.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is Hanklit.
5. 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 sits at 190 km, about halfway. Next is back through Aggersborg.
6. 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 comes up about 268 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj.
7. back through The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 315 km into the recorded legs you reach back through The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj. 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 429 km.
Leg by leg
Fyrkat to Viking-Age Ring Fortresses
Fyrkat → Viking-Age Ring Fortresses is 65 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Viking-Age Ring Fortresses to The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj
Viking-Age Ring Fortresses → The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj to Aggersborg
The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj → Aggersborg is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Aggersborg to Hanklit
Aggersborg → Hanklit is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hanklit to back through Aggersborg
Hanklit → back through Aggersborg is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Aggersborg to back through The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj
back through Aggersborg → back through The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj to back through Viking-Age Ring Fortresses
back through The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj → back through Viking-Age Ring Fortresses is 50 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 66 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Knudeklint and Fyrkat · 273 km
- Fyrkat and Aggersborg starting at Hobro · 404 km
- The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj and Fyrkat · 224 km
- Fyrkat and Aggersborg · 524 km