Tolvkarlevej and Højager and Trelleborg

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Tolvkarlevej and Højager

   Hillerød is the town where the Danish kings built their most ambitious castle, and the roads around it carry some of the best light in northern Zealand. Frederiksborg Castle stands on three small islands in a lake, a red-brick and sandstone Renaissance palace with towers, spires and a copper roof turned green. King Christian IV, who rebuilt it in the early seventeenth century, was a builder of grand projects and a lover of show, and he made Frederiksborg a stage for royal life. Today it houses the Museum of National History, and its gardens in the baroque style stretch away in terraces.

   Read the complete Tolvkarlevej and Højager write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Tolvkarlevej and Højager 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 73 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

   147 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 Tolvkarlevej and Højager.

5. 5. Tolvkarlevej and Højager

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Tolvkarlevej and Højager write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Tolvkarlevej and Højager. That is the ride.