Stevns Klint and Store Dyrehave

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Stevns Klint

   Stevns Klint is a white cliff of chalk and limestone, some fifteen kilometres long, on the east coast of Zealand, south of Copenhagen, and it holds one of the most important records of a global catastrophe. About sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth near what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, causing a mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs and much of life on Earth. In the cliff, a thin, dark layer of clay, called the fish clay, marks that moment, and it contains high levels of iridium, a metal rare on Earth but common in asteroids. This layer was a key piece of evidence for the impact theory, and the cliff was listed by UNESCO in 2014.

   Read the complete Stevns Klint write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Stevns Klint 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 about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is Roskilde Cathedral.

3. 3. Roskilde Cathedral

   Roskilde Cathedral is where Denmark keeps its kings. Since the fifteenth century, almost every Danish monarch has been buried here, and the chapels and crypts hold around forty kings and queens, from medieval stone tombs to ornate baroque sarcophagi and modern designs. The cathedral itself, begun in the late twelfth century under Bishop Absalon, the warrior-churchman who also founded Copenhagen, was one of the first big brick Gothic churches in Scandinavia, and it set the style for church building across the region. UNESCO listed it in 1995. Inside, look for the clock with the figure of St George slaying the dragon, which strikes the hour, and the pillar where royal visitors have marked their height.

   Read the complete Roskilde Cathedral write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 64 km into the recorded legs you reach Roskilde Cathedral. Next is Store Dyrehave.

4. 4. 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, about halfway. Next is back through Roskilde Cathedral.

5. 5. back through Roskilde Cathedral

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Roskilde Cathedral write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Roskilde Cathedral sits at 148 km, about halfway. Next is back through Borgring.

6. 6. 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 comes up about 168 km into the recorded legs. Next is Stevns Klint.

7. 7. Stevns Klint

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Stevns Klint write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Stevns Klint closes the day.