There are three rows here, separated only by metres, but all have a distinct ambiance, north, south and west.
Latest Fieldnotes
July 29, 2007
Some 50 metres away from the south row are the third, western alignments which consist of the same white, quartzy, sugar lumps as the northern alignments.
Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 160.
Access: Good – carpark very close to monument. On the Mols peninsula, fairly near Århus.
From the E45 , we left at junction 44 to avoid getting too ‘involved’ in Århus – not knowing what traffic would be like there. We headed east on the 587, hitting the 15 just north of Løgten, following the 15 to go to Rønde.
From Rønde we headed south towards Egens & Vrinners. After about 3km, we took a right to Vrinners and then on to Knebel. At Knebel turn left, signposted Agri 3 (according to Julian in TME). The monument is just under 1km along this road, on the right – you can’t miss it!
Visited 6 April 2006
This was one of the sites that had really captured both me & Jane on practically our first glance through The Megalithic European.
In the ‘flesh’, it certainly lived up to the anticipation!
A beautifully proportioned and beautifully positioned thing, rather than dominating from a hilltop, it nestles at the bottom of a gently sweeping valley.
Neatly denuded, the runddysse features a spectacular kerb and nicely preserved chamber – apparently there is evidence that there were originally 2 chambers, which accounts for why the existing one is not central.
Jane wandered around taking in the stones & looking for an angle to paint from, while I headed up the hillside to the south and then the north to properly check out the monument’s landscape.
A fantastic couple of hours & then off to catch as many of the numerous monuments in the surrounding area as we could!
Access: See Ormhøj.
Visited 4 April 2006
I want to cry!!! (See Ormhøj for explanation.) Jordhøj and Ormhøj look like real beauties, but we had no time....
If you’re lucky enough to visit, the only information I’ve found is that Jordhøj has a passage 6 metres long and it was excavated in the 1890s. Finds of earthenware post and flint knives are in the Danish National Museum (Copenhagen).
It looks as though you can get into the chamber(s).
Access: Area to park right next to Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund.
Katbjerg is on the 555 between Hørbo and Mariager. Hørbo is about halfway between Århus and Aalborg. We actually went here from Hohøj at Mariager, but from the E45, I’d say you need to get off at junction 36 to avoid having to go through the town and simply follow the 555 towards Mariager.
Once on the 555 and heading east, the Katbjerg complex is just past the village of Katbjerg, on the left (north). Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund was one of the best 3 or 4 sites we saw in Denmark and one of the ‘best’ long barrows I have ever seen!
Visited 4 April 2006 Complex consisting of Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund – a superb langdysse (long barrow), Rishøj – a dug-out barrow (probably a runddysse, or round barrow), and Jordhøj and Ormhøj – 2 more complete-looking barrows that we only saw from a distance, due to time constraints.
12:07:03ce
Almost a year and a half after I came here with Julian Cope I have returned to Vieux Moulin. I’d forgotten just how effective the illusion the stones create is. As one approaches one is sure that there are four stones n this short, solitary row. Only when the approach angle changes slightly can one see that in fact there are six.
I remain unconvinced by Aubrey Burl’s ‘slight curve’ and it seems to me this was only ever as it is now. These shortish stone rows are indeed an riddle. They enclose no space, they do not seem precise enough to facilitate astronomical observations, so what were they for? I think the clue may lie in the fact that many of these rows are (relatively) isolated and away from large ritual centres. In that one can read that, like so many of the smaller dolmens, these were monuments for a small community. The village chapel for day to day use away from the great cathedral of Carnac.
It almost seems that one can try to read to much into these type of monuments, trying to find reason or purpose, in the end I think it goes back to the mountaineer’s answer; why did they put up the stones? Because they were there…
12:07:03ce
I came here for two reasons, firstly because I have not been here for two years and on that occasion I took no notes and secondly to try and find the second dolmen claimed to be to the north of here. I have already failed on the second count as I traipsed around much high gorse and heather and found nothing.
So now to Mane Croch, I now remember why I liked this place so much the last time and how my photos did it no justice. A long passage leads to a chamber that it transepted into four. The stones are all of a lovely chunky local granite. No mound covers this dolmen now and there is no capstone over the centre of the four chambers. It could be that this part of the roof was corbelled and that this site was a mixture of those two construction methods, both common in the area. In fact at nearby Mané Braz the roof is formed by a sort of ‘mega-corbelling’.
The layout of this monument is clearly similar to UK sites such as West Kennet long barrow and I like to believe that the dolmens of the Carnac area were a direct influence on those of southern England.
Fifteen miles or so to the south east of the city of Rennes, near Essé is one of France’s most famous prehistoric monuments: the super-sized La Roche-aux-Fées.
Well-signposted from the main roads and now with its own small village close by, this colossal construction is more megalithic hall than over-sized allée couverte. Indeed, the size of its groundplan is pretty much the same size as the ground plan of our house.
We’ve all seen pictures in guidebooks and on the telly of famous iconic buildings throughout the world; the Taj Mahal, the Alhambra Palace, the Giza Pyramids, Angkor Wat, and so on. But just like all those places, the familiarity with them doesn’t lessen the impact when you stand face-to-face with them.
And so it was for me at La Roche-aux-Fées on this miserable chucking-it-down April day. It is jaw-droppingly vast; made up of 40 giant slabs of purple cambrian schist, obtained from at least 5kms away. Its six gigantic capstones weigh between 40 to 50 tonnes each. Surely this wasn’t only ever a tomb? Today it wasn’t.
Today it served as a wonderful and roomy shelter from the pelting rain, a place for me to sit, think quietly and sketch; have a cuppa and feel its stones enclose me and protect from the dreary outside world.
The large car park suggests hundreds of visitors come here in good weather but today it was almost entirely ours. I wasn’t going to be rushed here. Feeling safe and dry inside, I got out my paints and make a little sketch. I loved the way the damp stones glistened in the wet and made the massive slabs hanging above my head seem to loom even larger still.
Approximate long/lat coordinates, as I couldn’t see the site among the trees on the aerial photomap. Shouldn’t be too far out though, and there is a signpost and a path through woods.
Access: A short walk fairly gently uphill, about 50 metres at the most from the road.
Very near monuments in the woods near Frellesvig on Langeland. From the 305 heading north, pass Frellesvig and continue to Tranekær. The 305 zigzags through the village, you need a right as the 305 bends reasonably sharply left, right in the middle of the village.
This is Stengadevej and heads south. It may be signposted Ryttermose and/or Stengade, but I don’t think there are any roads you could mistake for it! Follow this for just over 1km and as the road reaches woodland, look out for a left turn (west) to the woods (called Bukkeskovvej).
After about 500 metres, the road turns sharply left (north). Almost immediately there is a jættestue sign and a small layby on the right. A path leads up the hill into the woods to the monument.
7 April 2006
Cool! Despite being quite badly damaged, this one’s a corker!
As you approach, the monument looks pretty underwhelming, but you only see it from the back at first – and yes, it’s pretty ‘second-hand’!
The capstones are missing, as is much of the mound, but both passages and chambers of the double-jættestue are otherwise largely intact. So is most of a fairly impressive kerb on the east (entrance) side of the barrow and the southern end.
This means that as well as being an interesting monument from the point of view of the double passages and chambers, its back view makes it look worse than it is.
It’s actually pretty good-looking from the front! Both passages are short, but the chambers are sizeable – in fact the northern one is huge.
Access: Area to park right next to Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund. Walk for around 100 metres along the edge of a field the west of Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund. When we were there, the field was ploughed and the small ‘verge’ at the edge is pretty uneven underfoot.
Visited 4 April 2006
Disappointing when arriving straight from the gem that is Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund, in many other contexts this would be a pleasing site.
Though dug out around the chamber, the mound is large and enough of the chamber stones are intact to give more than a semblance of what the monument was.
Kong Humbles Grav is in all the guidebooks as the most fabulous langdysse with exposed chambers in Langeland. So what we couldn’t understand was the place that Julian’s instructions took us to in TME…a most underwhelming, crescent shaped long embankment on top of a huge grassy mound overlooking the town of Humble, opposite the church.
Moth and I couldn’t believe it. We were embarrassed to have taken our friends after the major build-up we’d given it. Something was wrong. We left disappointed and highly suspicious.
As I drove us to our next monument, Moth checked other guidebooks, including the Oldtidsminder På Langeland by Jens Bech of Langelands Museum and Jens Kortermann, a jewel among guidebooks (text all in Danish) but with brilliant maps and drawings.
Oops Julian! If you’re reading this, I’m afraid you screwed up, sweetie. The underwhelming earthwork you call Kong Humbles Grav on page 168 of TME is no such thing.
Don’t be fooled!
We found the *REAL* Kong Humbles Grav with not too much trouble. Here’s how to get there. Drive past the church and turn down the first farm track to the left, towards a beautifully kept pink and blue farm house with a monster yellow barn. Park here, put your money in the honesty box and walk north behind the white barn and follow the track through the field. Here is Kong Humbles Grav – a magnificent long barrow with squared off ends and lots of good kerbstones.
The main chamber in the middle is an exposed dolmen in superb condition.
Straw had been put on the ground in the chamber so I shot in, not only to get out of the bitter wind and the threat of rain but because it really was delightfully hygge in there!
Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 159, under the name Spanskhøj, see below.
Access: Park at farm near monument. Walk of a few hundred metres, at most, across grassy paths between cultivated fields.
Snibhøj and Spanskhøj are not far from the E45, leaving it at junction 34 near Hørbo, which is about halfway between Århus and Aalborg. Head west on the 29 (aka 541). Take the 2nd turning to the left after around 1.5-2km, towards Hannerup & Snæbum. Julian says it’s signposted ‘Rojdrup 2’.
Travel along this road for around 2.5km and then it meets Hannerupvej at an acute angle. Turn right onto Hannerupvej, through the village, taking a right towards Hvilsom onto Hvilsomvej as you approach the west end.
Very soon, the road bends left and you need to park in the yard of the next farm on the left. We were greeted by a friendly woman with a torch and some leaflets (even including some English text!)
Visited 4 April 2006
Firstly, the confusion over the name. The leaflet we were given (or we may have had to pay a little for it, I can’t remember) makes it clear. It says that Snibhøj is the one with access and the one with the denuded tomb next to it.
Perhaps significantly, in his 1972 book Discovering Archaeology in Denmark, James Dyer calls both tombs (and the nearby denuded one) ‘Spanskhøj’.
Whatever it’s called, it’s a fantastic place! A huge mound with 2 separate chambers large enough for us (both 5’ 8”) to stand up in, and each with their own entrance passage alongside each other.
In fact, all 3 tombs (this, Spanskhøj & the trashed one) have the double passage & chambers. We didn’t see any others like them on our trip.
Interestingly, when excavated, Snibhøj’s chambers were completely free of earth because any gaps between chamber stones had been sealed with small stones. The chambers contained about 50 skeletons, of which 18 were 16 or younger.
Dated at around 3,200bc, the condition of the monument – especially the passages & chambers – is wonderful. It’s also quite cool to be able to inspect the denuded tomb, which acts like a groundplan!
Access: Area to park right next to the monument and fairly even, flat grassed area around the monument.
Visited 4 April 2006
Amazing! This should be a showcase site – it’s probably the ‘best’ long barrow I’ve ever seen, anywhere. It’s long, high and virtually complete, has 2 chambers with access and a truly spectacular retaining kerb with stones up to 3 metres tall!
One chamber is larger than the other (I can’t remember which!) and is a bit easier to get into, though the squeeze through the passage is fairly tight even for a 5’ 8"er. Once inside though, the chamber is, I think, around 2 metres high (in places at least). Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of this one, as Jane was using the camera.
The passage to the smaller chamber is a real ‘crawler’, as you may be able to see from one of our photographs, but is just as rewarding as the larger one.
The langdysse was ‘partially excavated’ in 1960 and I wonder if it was restored at the same time, as it is so pristine. The tiny amount of information I was able to find online in English was very brief. The only other thing it said was that finds of middle-neolithic pottery and flint knives are in the Danish National Museum (Copenhagen).
A short walk from here to Rishøj which I’m afraid is not in such good condition, but well worth a look.
Access: We weren’t able to actually visit these, as the field was in crop. So we just looked at the one we could see from the road and the field edge, a frustrating 20 metres away. There was no obvious path across the flat (ploughed when we were there) field, so it would probably be best to ask at one of the nearby farm or houses.
Very near other monuments in the woods near Frellesvig on Langeland. From the 305 heading north, pass Frellesvig and turn left (west) after a few hundred yards when the main road bends gently right. (It may be unmetalled, I’m not quite sure.)
Turn left (west) at the next ‘junction’. After just under 0.5km, this road turns right, but the monuments are in the field on the left (south). there is just room to park here.
Seen from a (frustratingly close!) distance 7 April 2006
In a small uncultivated plot in the north end of a field there are a large damaged langdysse and a better (I believe) preserved, but much smaller one.
The northern and larger langdysse certainly looks to have an impressive kerb, but it appeared that its ‘top’ was probably quite disturbed. It certainly looked overgrown when we were there.
James Dyer says in Discovering Archaeology in Denmark that the smaller one has 2 clear chambers with passages to the south-east and large wall slabs filled-in with dry stone. They are both 1.8 metres wide and 3 metres long. He calls the kerb at the SE ‘particularly good’.
We couldn’t see this at all, as our view was blocked by the northern one.
Access: We didn’t actually visit this one, just looked at it from the road roughly 100 metres away. There was no obvious path across the flat (ploughed when we were there) field, so it would probably be best to ask at one of the nearby farms or houses.
Around 0.5km north of Dyssekammer i Herslev.
Seen from a distance 7 April 2006
This looked very overgrown, though you could glimpse one of the 2 chambers through the scrubby trees, standing exposed and proud of the mound.
There was no path that we could see and nowhere immediately obvious to park for more than a few seconds, so we decided to give it a miss as we had a lot more to see in our last full day in Denmark.
Must admit, I now kind of regret it, as looking at the one photo I took, it looks as if it may be better preserved than we thought. Visit it & let us know!
Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 163, as an inset.
Access: A short walk of about 500m at the most, gently uphill over a grassy track.
Near Horsens & junction 56 of E45. I’ll echo Julian’s instructions, as we got there fine using them! From junction 56 head east on the 52 taking care to stay on the 52 at a strange crossroads where the 52 ‘veers right’ (as Julian puts it). Then he says to go 2.1km along that road, turning right at sign for Rugballe 1.
Follow that lane until you reach a T junction & turn right, the another 0.8km & turn right into trees. Look out for a clearing on the right where the monument is & a clearing on the left where you can park.
It seems from the map that you could actually get there a slightly simpler way by turning off the 52 a little earlier, but there may be something I don’t know about that route!
Visited 4 April 2006
The Great Tomb on Porth Hellick Down in the Isles of Scilly immediately sprang to mind on seeing this, both on TME & in the ‘flesh’. But that’s a good thing, giving 2 of my favourite features in a tomb – a chamber you can get into and a nice set of kerbstones!
Really narrow passage & a comparatively small, low chamber with a beautifully quartz-striped stone as one of its largest orthostats. There is a valley to the north which I think may have offered a pretty cool view, but it’s masked by the trees mentioned in the directions.
Excavators found burials & associated materials in the chamber from the middle and late neolithic. A huge number (7,000!) potshards were found just outside the kerbstones, in front of the passage, and more on top of some of the kerbstones.
Access: Good. You can get within a few yards of the monument by car and enjoy the seaside setting.
For road directions to the area, see Frydendal Kro. Continue NW along the ‘main’ forest road, past Frydendal Øst & Havrekobbel.
It’s about 5km in total from Frydendal Kro. Stay on this road, and keep eyes open for a right-turn to Nygard.
Once you can see the sea, you can also see the runddysse!
Visited 3 April 2006
Wow! A wonderfully pretty monument in a beautiful setting – the sea always makes a fantastic life-filled backdrop!
An impressively complete kerb remains on this picturesque runddysse, which is built on an ‘extra’ mound to allow it to sit level on the slope down towards the sea.
The centrally placed chamber is exposed, but the mound is complete enough to still mean that the sidestones are largely below the surface. It’s topped off with a heavy & shapely capstone .
The sun even came out, highlighting the amazing variety of differently coloured kerbstones and turning them into dollymixtures!
A favourite!
Co-ordinates are for carpark on east side of road, barrows are clearly visible on west of road
Access: Carpark at east of road and short walk along grassy paths to the nearest barrow. May get boggy in the wet and I haven’t seen the path between the 2 barrows – I guess they’re about 200m apart.
For directions, see Mols/Porskær Stenhus. Continue east along this road past Porskær un-named to Agri, continuing ‘straight on’ at the crossroads. The barrows are on the left after about 500m.
Visited 4 April 2006
Having spent hours at Mols/Porskær Stenhus & wanting to get on to Tustrup, we didn’t have time to walk up to these beauties – which I now kind of regret!
However, from the little information I’ve found, it doesn’t look as if there is all that much to see other than the mounds.
Access: Small carpark close to monument. Short uphill walk of maybe 100 metres on edge of field, with worn path across ploughed soil (when we were there) to monument.
Langdysse ved Ristinge Nor is in the south of Langeland, but very easy to reach from Hesselbjerg. From there, go into Hesselbjerg village and turn right. Very soon take the next left, and then the next right.
The road bends left to go north and then left again to go west. Stay on this road and the monument is in a field on your right on the (near) horizon after around 0.5km. There is a small parking place also on the right (north) of the road.
Visited 5 April 2006
Nice one! Covering mound gone, but looking spectacular in the yellow light of the sinking sun.
This strongly reminded me of Lindeskov Langdysse 6 – the one featured on page 157 of Julian’s The Megalithic European, both because of the lack of mound covering and the multiple chambers.
The plan of the monument on the information board at the carpark shows that 2 of the 4 chambers in the langdysse were jættestuen – passage graves. And the ‘middle’ 2 were ‘dysse’ or dolmens – burial chambers without a passage – suggesting that they are older.
Quite handily, one of each remains reasonably well-preserved (though I think the passage on the passage grave only has one stone from its passage).
Access: Good – carpark right next to monuments.
Head for Aabenraa on the E45, down near the isle of Als. Leave the E45 at junction 70 to go west on the 24 for a short distance. Then take the 429 west into Rødekro, but almost immediately turning left (south) onto Hærvejen. This road will take you to Hjordkær.
As you reach the town, you will see an industrial estate on your right before reaching the 443. Turn west into the industrial estate and the carpark and monuments are on your left after 100-200 metres.
Visited 3 April 2006
Hmmm. Prehistoric sites throughout Europe include many gritty ‘urban’ survivors that remain powerful, impressive and attractive despite their surroundings.
This ain’t one of them, but it’s still partially a credit to the local archaeological authorities that it’s still here & with what looked like a very good info board. (It was in Danish, so I can’t guarantee it was good!)
Its unsatisfactory setting (and possibly state of destruction) are a familiar story for those of us who care about sites in the UK. The site was excavated in 1980 as several burial mounds were being ploughed up as the land was under industrial development. How many burial mounds there were and what condition they and this site were in, I don’t know.
At least the nearest factory makes something worthwhile – parts for wind turbines....
Access: Area to park right next to Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund. We didn’t have time to go up to or into Ormhøj or Jordhøj. It looks like a walk of a few hundred metres back along the road would be the best approach, but you may be able to reach them from Rishøj.
Visited 4 April 2006
Aaargh!!! Through the big lens, Ormhøj and Jordhøj look like real beauties, but we were out of time having spent quite a while at Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund and Rishøj.
To be honest, I hadn’t realised they were so close to Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund until we were heading away. How I missed spotting them from Rishøj, I don’t know, but it was probably too late by then!
So if you’re lucky enough to visit, the only information I’ve found is that Ormhøj has an oval chamber 5 meters long with a rare smaller chamber behind it. Excavated in the 1890s, finds of earthenware post and flint knives are in the Danish National Museum (Copenhagen).
It looks as though you can get into the chambers.
Immediately adjacent to La Croix de St Pierre Tertre Tumulaire is La Croix de St Pierre cairn which Julian calls Le Dolmen West. I loved this. It’s very restored but it has a style and character, clarity and sharpness which I found very appealing.
And next, immediately adjacent to La Croix de St Pierre is the La Croix de St Pierre Tertre Tumulaire, a 20 metre long low mound surrounded by small kerbstones marking out its shape. Not much height left to the mound now.
Mentioned in passing in The Megalithic European (TME) on page 168.
Access: Walk of just over 1km fairly gently uphill much of the time, along field edges next to the sea. Quite rough underfoot, as much of this is on edges of ploughed fields.
The Langdysse ved Pæregård Strand is on Langeland, and easy to find from Ringlehøj i Snave Skov. Simply continue for around 700m to the end of the same road which ends beside the sea. Walk north along the edge of the fields next to the sea.
7 April 2006
What a shame! OK, so the langdysse’s is quite damaged, but it seems that it could still be well worth seeing if cleared of the thick overgrowth covering it.
It has the remains of 3 chambers and according to James Dyer in 1972 “...is partly surrounded by a kerb of stones.” – Discovering Archaeology in Denmark.
The tough & gnarly vegetation makes it very difficult to investigate the monument properly and to work out what’s what. Even with the plan in Oldtidsminder På Langeland that we picked up at the tourist info office, it’s still too abstract.
And worse, with its seaside setting, it has a wonderful place in the landscape that can only be glimpsed, when it should be striking. The tress and large bushes on it mask the view to th north from the south of the monument – and the view to the south from the north.
All that said, we enjoyed our visit – the coast here is beautiful – but the monument requires a fair amount of imagination and prompted a lot of frustration!