Latest Fieldnotes

There are two hunebedden at Drouwen, just about 50 metres apart and another one (D26) about a kilometer away. D20 is one of the twins. We were actually on our way to Bronneger to see the five there, but passing through Drouwen to get there, we suddenly glimpsed the twins of D19 and D20 no more than 10 metres apart.

They have there own big space in parkland on the edge of the village. People come here often – we could see the tracks in the snow – to exercise their dogs, play with their kids or just as a point to walk to and from. How splendid that this pair of lovelies are still enjoyed.

There are two hunebedden at Rolde, just about 50 metres apart. They lie at the edge of the village in parkland next to a magnificent medieval brick built church and graveyard.

D18 is in much better condition than its twin, D17, with all its capstones up. A large hunebed is a textbook example, but I found it strangely characterless.

D3 and D4 hunebedden are almost Siamese twins and locked toegther in a row. They are now both in such a sorry state, squeezed end-to-end between the garden of a run down cottage and a crumbling, disused farm building. Their massive stones have been knocked down and lie strewn about, hinting at what once was. They looked tired, almost dead, for practically all the capstones were knocked off their feet. But for all that, we found them curiously enchanting collapsed in their higgledy-piggledy semi-rural alleyway.

D3 and D4 hunebedden are almost Siamese twins and locked toegther in a row. They are now both in such a sorry state, squeezed end-to-end between the garden of a run down cottage and a crumbling, disused farm building. Their massive stones have been knocked down and lie strewn about, hinting at what once was. They looked tired, almost dead, for practically all the capstones were knocked off their feet. But for all that, we found them curiously enchanting collapsed in their higgledy-piggledy semi-rural alleyway.

Here at Bronneger, near Drouwen, you get five all at once in a glorious bucolic setting with fields and woodlands. And though badly trashed, they still have the power to enchant, both individually and as a group.

D21 is a small monument and has all three of its capstones still up and neat little endstones like full stops. It is very reminiscent of D6 at Tynaarlo. Nestling against it is a delightful mature tree. It is no more than 4ms away from its closest neighbour, D22.

Here at Bronneger, near Drouwen, you get five all at once in a glorious bucolic setting with fields and woodlands. And though badly trashed, they still have the power to enchant, both individually and as a group.

Just 4ms from its closest neighbour, D21, D22 is reduced to just two large flat capstones on the ground at the base of a tree.

Here at Bronneger, near Drouwen, you get five all at once in a glorious bucolic setting with fields and woodlands. And though badly trashed, they still have the power to enchant, both individually and as a group.

D23, D24 and D25 stand in a little copse about 50ms from D21 and D22.
D23 is just a dolmen now with a couple of other stones scattered around. Nevertheless, if this part alone was transported to a remote Yorkshire moor, I know many stones enthusiasts for who would traipse over rough ground to see it.

Just two kilometers out of Borger as you drive east towards Buinen, if you look to you right, in a sandy field, you will clearly see D28 and D29 in their own little state-owned space.

Indeed, all hunebedden except the ruinous one at Westernesch are nationally maintained. It gave me a little thrill of excitement that I had found this one so easily. It was quite discreetly signposted and might easily have been missed.

A short stroll of 50ms or so from the car and you approach to D29 first. D28 lies just 10 or 15ms beyond it. They are both very similarly sized, both having clearly originally having three capstones, but now both only have two. This two-for-the-price-of-one double whammy of hunebedden!

Bang! Start with a good ‘un if you can. D53 has nine capstones all up thanks to a post-war restoration and is the second biggest hunebed in the Netherlands. Amid sandy, heathery heathland away from the village this is a beast! With picnic tables and seats aplenty it’s clearly THE local beauty spot, though today we had it more or less to ourselves. The rain made the stones glisten and they looked so gorgeous I was immediately frustrated that I wouldn’t be able to sketch it with the drizzle coming down. D53 also has a capstoned portal, which is quite unusual. I felt so happy here! So happy that I ran the 50 metres or so up to D54, clearly visible on the rising dune further up the road. Another lovely site, this one with six capstones, all up. What a beautiful pair!

Julian calls this one Fokkinger Slag in TME, which is actually the name of the nearby road.

8 April 2006

It was raining hard and looked set in for the day as we approached Jelling, Denmark’s spiritual home.

Moth and had I been musing on the difference between British jam and American jelly, wondering about the (il)logic of American musicians jamming rather than jelling, when, quite randomly, Bob Marley’s ‘Jammin’’ started playing on the MP3 player.

Jelling was virtually deserted when we arrived. Ours was the only car in the car park and everything was closed, even the museum. And it was very, very cold.

Jelling is a small town centred on series of monuments from a number of different ages. First a bronze age barrow, then a Viking stone long ship, then runestones, then two gigantic mounds, then a church. Peel back the layers here and you begin to understand Denmark’s history and sense of national identity.

It is only 1,000 years since Christianity was adopted by Danish kings over the old religion and Jelling marks the place where this happened. Outside the church that now stands between the two mounds a Viking runestone is carved with the earliest known image of the crucified Jesus in Scandinavia.

Each monument has been acknowledged and built into the next phase of Jelling. I like that continuity even if it does mean the land close to the mounds around the church and the runestones is now filled with neat and tidy modern graves.

We wandered around trying to make sense of it but the place lacked atmosphere without any people around. Unusually this is set of monuments that needs people to make it live. A visit to the museum would help us understand but it wasn’t open for an hour and a half, so we drove around in the rain in a fruitless search for the carved tree on the Jelling pages of TME (page 167) before returning to Jelling Kro for some coffee and a plate of chips.

The museum is situated directly opposite the mounds, runestones and church. As you go round reading the excellent displays in Danish and English you can glance out of huge glass windows and actually see the monuments in front of you.

There is a feel of Avebury about this place – the monuments and history still being occupied, enjoyed, revered and used, even if the reasons ‘why here especially?’ are not addressed.

It is pretty remarkable that only a few years or so before William of Normandy invaded England, the Danes were still following their native ‘pagan’ religion.

Ristinge Klint sits on top of a tiny, narrow peninsula, jutting out the west of Langeland. The rain, hail and sleet had passed and the beach was bathed in warm sunshine, the first time I’d not been cold whilst outside all week. We walked along the path up through the dunes and along the sandy cliffs above the deserted and beautiful beach until we reached this glorious erection.

It was much bigger than we dared hope from the tiny line drawing in the pamphlet we had. We were all delighted with it. This is a textbook dolmen.

Hidden in the woods between Kerlescan and La Trinite this is one of those little treats for the dedicated hunter. Remember the trick is to seek out the ‘Camping Interdit’ signs and hope for the best. This is one of the reasons to get a good map and go hunting, you can guarantee no one will have been there for ages so you can get a real ‘I’m an explorer’ experience.

The most popular misconception about how this site gets its name is that it was knowns as ‘The Merchant’s Table’. In fact its name comes from the former land owners, whose name was Marchant.
These days the Table des Marchants is covered by a wholly reconstructed cairn, which serves not only to protect the carvings within but also to demonstrate how many of the, now uncovered, local dolmens would have originally looked. Although the accuracy of this reconstruction cannot be guaranteed, it was based on detailed study of the underlying archaeology.
Within the mound the fabulous rear upright stone is decorated with many crooks, but in many ways the main attraction is the capstone. For here one can see a partial carving of two horned beasts. This capstone was once a section of a large carved menhir, the tip of which now covers the Er-Grah mound next door. However it was only realised fairly recently that the third section is now the main capstone of the Gavrinis mound, a few kilometres away on an island in the Gulf of Morbihan. This was one of the discoveries which lead to the theory of older menhirs being destroyed and used in passage-gave construction.
The Table des Marchants forms a complex with the Grand Menhir Brise and the Er- Grah mound, but many of Locamariaquer’s other sites are in close proximity.

23rd April 2003

I visited Dissignac with my sister back at the beginning of March but heavy rain made any fieldwork or even general hanging quite impossible. Today there is only wispy cloud in the sky and I can write these notes lying on the grass in front of the tumulus.
Dissignac is one of those marvelously restored tumuli that looks like nothing less than a huge megalithic flying saucer, its stepped facings of drystone walling reflecting successive retaining walls within.
Two passages are sunk into the mound so when one sees a photo it is almost as if one is supposed to cross ones eyes to get a 3-D effect! These ‘stereo dolmens’ are numerous in southeast france but not so common up here. So Dissignac is worth a visit if only to witness its mutant two holed attack.
A small visitor centre (closed while I was here) suggests this place can get quite busy, even so, two days after Easter, with the kids off school, I am given Dissignac to myself.

01 May 2003

In the beautifully manicured ‘Parc de Roi de Menhirs’ (Park of the King of Menhirs) and outside the townhall of Arville stands the massive Menhir du Champ de César. At eight metres seventy it is the tallest menhir in the Vendée and comes at you in a classic Champ Dolent/Manio kind of way. It was once one of an alignment of three but the other two were sadly removed. A local hotel still bears the name ‘Auberge des Trois Pilliers’.
These massive menhirs are still such a mystery, although as part of an alignment it could at least have some astronomical significance.
Although it is difficult to tell in this built up area it is likely that the menhir stands on slightly higher ground and was maybe once intervisible with other sites in the area…

Between Hobro and Mariager on route 555 at Katbjerg, you find one of the most imposing Danish long barrows.

Moth couldn’t find any printed information about the monuments at Katbjerg at all which is almost criminal, because the long barrow is the finest long barrow we had ever seen. Yes, seriously!

This monument was untrashed and probably not much restored. It was long – perhaps 25 metres and rectangular with a continuous line of big kerbstones. And tall, too some up to 3ms high! The mound billowed upwards along the entire length of the monument, completely undenuded. Down one side are two low passageways, each leading to a large intact chamberof grand proportions, one of them has uprights of more than 2m high!

No fancy horned forecourts here though; instead just really whopping stones at each end. Oooh! Oooh! OOOOH! This place blew our minds.

It was partly excavated in 1960. The finds, fine pottery from the middle Neolithic period and flintstone knives, are in the National Museum.

At the north east tip of Fyn is a little promentary on which can be found Marhøj (TME page 158), a particularly thrilling giant barrow. In a landscape shared by other fat, high, humpy høj, Marhøj is Queen.

Wading through the dark earth of the field littered with flints, we reached the monument and found the entrance to the passageway leading in is half way up the mound, rather than at ground level. Stooping very low (if you’re tall this is almost a hands-and-knees-job) I squeezed down the 5 metre passage flanked with big flat stones to reach the main chamber which runs perpendicular to it.

The main passage was darker than dark. I got out the torch but it was unable to penetrate the blackness at all. I found a bit of candle and lit it. Then I found a tealight and lit that. And another and another and another until the whole chamber, 10ms long was illuminated by 26 tealights. It looked very hygge.

I sat down on the damp earth to inspect the chamber, smoke a cig and have a cuppa. It was vast: seven massive capstones formed the roof, all glistening in with wet in the candlelight making it as cosy as a fairy grotto. Moth scampered around with the tripod taking pictures and collecting more than 25 used tealights. It was cold in there – my breath was condensing – but it was out of the rain and the icy wind. It was fab.

Visited 2 April 2006
We don’t have any photos of this, as the only thing we found was a mess and unphotographable under the shadows of the trees. But I’m not sure it was the dyssekammer anyway!

Access: A couple of hundred yards across flat fields, could be boggy in wet weather.

Fenced off but accessible through a typical Danish self-closing gate. These are a normal gate leaning far enough from perpendicular that the gate will ‘fall’ closed when released. (With a ‘stop’ to prevent it falling wide open!) I guess they could be a bit awkward for people with mobility restrictions.

To find the monument, take the 11 north from Varde, taking the turn for Mejls. You will be able to see a few barrow mounds – and you may have seen a few from the 11. They’re pretty common here & by & large, far larger than the ‘standard’ ones we’re used to in the UK.

Don’t go to Mejls itself, but take the first left. Almost immediately, you will pass 2 barrows on your right. Pass a farm on the left and at the far end of the next field, you will find a small parking area/layby on the left, by a building (a bungalow I think).

I’m pretty sure there was a signpost, but basically the monument you’re looking for is immediately beyond the field on your left. You’ll be able to see it & it’s more complete partner from the road. Just walk (roughly west) along the field boundary.

Visited 1 April 2006
It was a misty dank afternoon, but we didn’t care as this was our first Danish monument! We’d driven straight here from the ferry port at Esbjerg, having planned a circuitous route across Jutland to Fyn (or Funen) where we were staying.

James Dyer calls this monument (though there are actually 2) a ‘barrow’. What we found was one complete(ish) barrow mound & a denuded, dug out version* with stones exposed. I’d’ve called it a passage grave, but what do I know?!

(*Or trashed – depending on your perspective!)

Kind of nice combination, actually – a complete barrow (or hoj!) and an exploded version to show how it ‘works’. Nice chamber stones, made up of a slightly tumbled passage & a couple of fairly substantial capstones over a small low chamber.

Not completely thrilling, but well worth a look if you’re in the area or passing en route somewhere! A good start to our danish trip.

Access: A hundred yards or so from the nearest road (north), up a fairly gentle hill, but the ground is quite rough.

We approached from the 11, heading north from its junction with the 15 between Ringkøbing on the coast & Herning.

Just after Brejning, we turned left (west) towards Ølustrup itself. The monument and a small parking place are on the right (north) of the road only about 1km before you reach the village. We missed it in that direction but found it easily by getting to the village and coming back the other way.

Visited 1 April 2006
James Dyer describes this complex as ‘three long dolmens and a long barrow’ in his 1972 book Discovering Archaeology in Denmark. To be honest, it seemed a bit of a mess.

I’ve posted a photo of a plan on a board by the road – make sure you have a good look at it before visiting the monuments! If you have a digital camera with you, take a photo of the plan/sign on your way to the monument – or print it from here! We found it very difficult to work out what was what once actually among the monuments.

Without the plan, you risk getting lots of lumps & bumps, some of which look kind of like barrows. Of course, the real giveaways are those that have had chunks dug away to expose some nice chamber stones!

Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 164.

Access: Pretty good. You can park on the small road right next to the monument(s). Through gate to smoothly grassed site.

Finding it can be a nightmare though!!! We found the small roads to the north of Bække to be a bit of a labyrinth, but we didn’t approach from the best direction, having missed a turning.

Instead, I’d advise carefully following Julian’s instructions in TME – leave the 469 between Grinsted & Kolding, 0.7km west of the 417 junction, to head south on Hamborggårdvej. (This was the one we missed. so be really alert!)

On Hamborggårdvej, you will also pass the huge Hamborggårdsten oath stone.

About 1km from the 469, turn right onto Tværvej. Then next left onto Klæbekvej. Klæbek Høje is a couple of hundred metres down on your left. (Or should be!!!)

Visited 1 April 2006
Here are 2 impressively domed round barrows from the bronze age, with added Viking skibssætning – a megalithic longship – between the barrows.

The ‘boat’ even features larger stones at the tips, presumably as prow & stern. One of these stones (the stern, I believe) features Viking runic carving, unusually including abbreviations.

According to James Dyer in his 1972 book Discovering Archaeology in Denmark, it was carved in the 9th century & says “Revne and Tobbe made these signs in memory of Vibrog, their mother”.

A disturbed and empty grave was found in the middle of the ship & there are curious tracklike depressions in the ground that run along the axis of the ‘ship’. The depressions are apparently the remains of a military road or trackway.

Dyer says the road was prehistoric. Seeing them, I wasn’t really convinced what they were, but I guess there’s some evidence I don’t know about!

So, anyway, hoorah! Our first ‘proper‘ Danish monument – just like in TME – not like anything in Britain. Of course the main difference is the Viking skibssætning, but the barrows are also considerably better preserved than most we see here – having been spared the attentions of the plough.....

Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 164.

Access: Right on the road. See my fieldnote on Klæbek Høje.

Visited 1 April 2006
A monster! In TME, Julian calls the stone ‘legendary’ and says it was used by Vikings for swearing oaths. However, as it appears as an add-on under Klæbek Høje, he doesn’t say any more. There is an info board, but of course, it’s in Danish....

I’d wondered if the stone was an erratic (not that that would’ve meant it wasn’t significant) but the pictures on the info board do include a drawing of people moving the stone into place. Whether the text asserts that it was deliberately placed I don’t know, as I can’t read (or speak) Danish!

The board does also show what seems to be an excavation, so perhaps there was evidence found at that time that it had been placed. Interestingly though, the stone seems to be far below (modern) ground-level – whereas now, it seems to be simply sitting on the ground....

Edit: Charlotte Thomsen saw my note and kindly provided this translation:

Hamborggårdstenen was moved by the ice during the latest ice age from Finland to its present location in Jutland, Denmark about 15,000 years ago.

The stone is approximately one billion years old (1,000,000,000), weighs about 50 tons and is made of granite. Originally the stone was embedded in the ground 20 meters further west but in January 1990 it was moved to its present location.

The stone is connected to old folklore and this is what the picture relates to: King Harold Bluetooth (10th Century) was moving the stone to his mother’s grave in Jelling but when he heard that his son Sweyn Forkbeard was rebelling against him, he left the stone.

Thank you Charlotte!!!

Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 156-7.

Access: Well signposted once you get fairly near. Parking area. Walk is a couple of hundred yards or so from the nearest road (north west), gently uphill along a dirt path through a small wood. Fairly uneven & may be muddy in the wet.

To reach the monument, get to Søndersø, which is on the 311 between Odense & Bogense. Travelling NW on the 311 from Søndersø, take Sanvad – a right turn (NE) towards Stensby, Skamby, Ulleup & Otterup. After around 1km, take a left towards Stensby, Skamby & Glavendrup. As Julian says in TME, I believe it’s signposted from here.

On reaching Stensby, take a left then a quick right towards Glavendrup. Very soon there is a left (Stenager) which passes just to the NW of Glavendrup village. At a crossroads just outside Glavendrup, go straight across, staying on Stenager. The woods containing the monument are a few hundred metres on the left.

Visited 2 April 2006
As you walk through the pleasantly airy woods to the restored skibssætning you will see many modern runestones, some dedicated to archaeologists involved in the restoration.

This is slightly ironic, as in 1800 a gravel pit meant many of the stones of the skibssætning were moved and lost. It was restored (badly) between 1892 and 1894, but the job was done properly in 1958. At that time they also found traces of Viking cremation burials.

The large runestone at the ‘prow’ was found separately, and in his 1972 book Discovering Archaeology in Denmark James Dyer seems to imply that this may not have been its original position. A shame, but hey, it looks great!!!

Here’s a translation of the runes from both sides of the stone, adapted from a couple of sources:

“Ragnhildr placed this stone in memory of Alle, the housecarls’ chieftain, high priest of the sanctuary. Alle’s sons made this monument in memory of their father, and his wife in memory of her husband. And Sóti carved these runes in memory of his lord. Thor bless these runes. A warlock be he who damages this stone or drags it (to stand) in memory of another.”

Ragnarock ‘n’ roll!!! An impressive monument and a very cool place!!!

There are (at least) 11 monuments around Lindeskov. We found 7 of them, including Langdysse 1 – the longest in Denmark, at 180m and a group of 4 in a clearing in a small wood.

Download a nice pdf leaflet in Danish but with a very handy map visitodense.com/dk/Naturfoldere/Lykkesholm_dk.pdf I advise rightclicking & choosing ‘Save as’, as trying to save it once I’d opened it online crashed my PC....

Wish we’d had the map when we visited! Good luck in finding the ‘missing pieces’!!