Hanklit and Fyrkat

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Viking-Age Ring Fortresses.

2. 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 53 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fyrkat.

3. 3. 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

   about 119 km into the recorded legs you reach Fyrkat. Next is back through Viking-Age Ring Fortresses.

4. 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 Hanklit.

5. 5. 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 at Hanklit. That is the ride.