Klæbek Høje Complex View all content for Klæbek Høje

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.....

Posted by Moth 30th July 2007ce

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