Jægersborg Dyrehave and Jægersborg Hegn and Kronborg Castle starting at Trørød

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Jægersborg Dyrehave and Jægersborg Hegn

   Danish kings loved to hunt, and in the late seventeenth century they laid out forests north of Copenhagen in a geometric pattern of straight paths radiating from central points, designed for par force hunting, in which riders and hounds chased a stag until it was exhausted. Jægersborg Dyrehave, the deer park, and Jægersborg Hegn are included in UNESCO's inscription of the par force hunting landscape in North Zealand, together with forests further north. The star-shaped network of rides is still visible, with numbered stone posts at the intersections that helped the hunters find their way.

   Read the complete Jægersborg Dyrehave and Jægersborg Hegn write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Jægersborg Dyrehave and Jægersborg Hegn is where the day begins. Next is Store Dyrehave.

2. 2. Store Dyrehave

   North of Copenhagen the royal family once hunted on a scale that reshaped the landscape, and Store Dyrehave, the Great Deer Park, near Hillerød, is a piece of that design. The forest is cut by straight rides, long avenues that radiate like the spokes of a wheel, so that horsemen and hounds could follow a stag at speed without losing sight of it. This kind of hunting, called par force, was fashionable at European courts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the Danish kings built an entire landscape for it, now recognised by UNESCO as the Par Force Hunting Landscape in North Zealand.

   Read the complete Store Dyrehave write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Store Dyrehave comes up about 25 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kronborg Castle.

3. 3. Kronborg Castle

   Hamlet never lived at Kronborg, but Shakespeare put him there, and the castle has been Elsinore in the imagination of the world ever since. It stands on a point of land at Helsingør where the Øresund narrows to about four kilometres, with Sweden clearly visible across the water, and for centuries it controlled one of the most important shipping lanes in Europe. King Frederik II built the castle in its Renaissance form in the 1570s and 1580s, and every ship passing through the strait had to stop and pay the Sound Dues, a toll that made the Danish crown rich for over four hundred years until it was abolished in 1857. Kronborg was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2000.

   Read the complete Kronborg Castle write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 59 km into the recorded legs you reach Kronborg Castle. Next is back through Store Dyrehave.

4. 4. back through Store Dyrehave

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Store Dyrehave write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Store Dyrehave, late in the day. Next is Jægersborg Dyrehave and Jægersborg Hegn.

5. 5. Jægersborg Dyrehave and Jægersborg Hegn

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Jægersborg Dyrehave and Jægersborg Hegn write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Jægersborg Dyrehave and Jægersborg Hegn. That is the ride.