Why this ride
From Slagelse it runs 258 km to Slagelse; allow about 5 h of riding. It goes by way of Borgring, Roskilde Cathedral, Store Dyrehave and back through Roskilde Cathedral. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Trelleborg and Store Dyrehave
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 258 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 54
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Borgring → Roskilde Cathedral
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 26 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 26 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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
Trelleborg is where the day begins. Next is Borgring.
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 67 km into the recorded legs. Next is Roskilde Cathedral.
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 93 km into the recorded legs you reach Roskilde Cathedral. Next is Store Dyrehave.
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. 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 193 km, about halfway. Next is back through Borgring.
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 197 km into the recorded legs. Next is Trelleborg.
7. Trelleborg
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
Trelleborg closes the day.
Leg by leg
Trelleborg to Borgring
Trelleborg → Borgring is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Borgring to Roskilde Cathedral
Borgring → Roskilde Cathedral is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Roskilde Cathedral to Store Dyrehave
Roskilde Cathedral → Store Dyrehave is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Store Dyrehave to back through Roskilde Cathedral
Store Dyrehave → back through Roskilde Cathedral is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Roskilde Cathedral to back through Borgring
back through Roskilde Cathedral → back through Borgring is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Borgring to Trelleborg
back through Borgring → Trelleborg is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.