The par force hunting landscape in North Z and Trelleborg

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. The par force hunting landscape in North Z

   Par force hunting sounds like a French affectation, and it was. The kings of Denmark in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries imported the style from the French court, in which riders on horseback and packs of hounds chased a stag until it was exhausted. To make it work, they needed a landscape designed for speed, and in North Zealand the royal foresters cut long, straight rides through the woods, many of them meeting at star-shaped crossings, so that the hunters could see the quarry and keep control of the chase. The pattern is still visible in the forests of Gribskov and Store Dyrehave, and UNESCO listed the landscape in 2015.

   Read the complete The par force hunting landscape in North Z write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   The par force hunting landscape in North Z 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 72 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

   144 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 The par force hunting landscape in North Z.

5. 5. The par force hunting landscape in North Z

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete The par force hunting landscape in North Z write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at The par force hunting landscape in North Z. That is the ride.