The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj and Fyrkat

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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

   The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj 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 46 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 112 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 The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj.

5. 5. The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   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

   Back at The Bony Fish Fossils of the Western Limfj. That is the ride.