Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang and Trelleborg

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang

   North Zealand is the part of Denmark where kings went to relax. The coast road runs up the Øresund from Copenhagen to Helsingør, past beach villas and harbours, and inland, behind the first ridge, lies a quieter country of beech woods, lakes and rolling fields around Fredensborg and Lake Esrum. Grønholtvangen is a stretch of open land and woodland north of Grønholt Vang, a name that suggests an old common, in a landscape that was shaped by royal hunting and by the great beech forest of Gribskov, one of the largest in Denmark. The ride belongs to Kronborg Castle, the Renaissance fortress at Helsingør that Shakespeare turned into Elsinore, the home of Hamlet.

   Read the complete Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang is where the day begins. Next is Borgring.

2. 2. Borgring

   In 2014, archaeologists using laser scanning of the landscape noticed a faint circle in a field near Køge, on the Danish island of Zealand, about forty kilometres south-west of Copenhagen. Excavations confirmed what they had hoped: it was a Viking ring fortress, one of a small group of perfectly circular fortresses built in Denmark in the late tenth century, probably under King Harald Bluetooth. It was named Borgring, and it was the first new ring fortress to be found in Denmark in over sixty years.

   Read the complete Borgring write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Borgring comes up 76 km in. Next is Trelleborg.

3. 3. Trelleborg

   In the late tenth century, on the western coast of Zealand, King Harald Bluetooth built a fortress that must have looked to its neighbours like a statement written in earth. Trelleborg is a perfect circle, about a hundred and thirty metres across, ringed by a high rampart with four gates facing the compass points, and inside, sixteen long houses are arranged in four neat blocks around a central crossing, like a plan drawn with a compass and ruler. Archaeologists dated the timbers to around the 980s, and the same geometry turns up at other Danish fortresses, at Fyrkat in Jutland and Aggersborg by the Limfjord, which suggests a royal building programme under a single mind.

   Read the complete Trelleborg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   151 km in you reach Trelleborg. Next is back through Borgring.

4. 4. back through Borgring

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Borgring write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Borgring, late in the day. Next is Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang.

5. 5. Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Grønholtvangen north of Grønholt Vang. That is the ride.