Why this ride
227 km from Hobro to Hobro, about 3 h 52 of riding. It goes by way of Viking-Age Ring Fortresses, The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj and back through Viking-Age Ring Fortresses. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Fyrkat and The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 227 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 52
- 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 back through Viking-Age Ring Fortresses.
4. 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.
5. 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 at Fyrkat. That is the ride.
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 back through Viking-Age Ring Fortresses
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 65 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Aalborg day out · Knudeklint · 381 km
- Fyrkat and Aggersborg starting at Hobro · 404 km
- Knudeklint and Fyrkat · 273 km
- Fyrkat and Hanklit · 429 km