Moth

Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 168.

Access: Carpark is close to monument, a walk of about 40m along the road.

Hesselbjerg is on Langeland. From the 9, at the eastern edge of Rudkøbbing take the 305 south for about 14km. At the south end of the village of Humble (see also Kong Humble’s Grav) take a right (west) onto Ristingevej.

Follow this road to Hesselbjerg, taking a left (SE) in the village, onto Nørreballevej. The langdysse is around 250m along on the right (south).

Visited 5 April 2006
Ve-ery nice! This is a fine langdysse. Somehow I’d missed it out when planning the trip, even though it’s featured in TME. I blame the sheer number of monuments all over Langeland!

Curiously, it’s also curiously missng from Oldtidsminder På Langeland, a wonderful little book (unfortunately not available in English) that we picked up at the tourist info office. Luckily, while we were in the area, I just happened to notice it on the map & thought we’d might as well visit.

Beautiful and prominent kerbstones line its long sides, though its chamber is unimpressive, and agriculture (and an information board) give it no elbow-room.

Its setting is very pretty, being in a nature reserve, very close to a lake which teems with wildlife. As the sinking sun turned the light yellow & the shadows deepened, I was very glad we’d not missed it!

Mentioned in passing in The Megalithic European (TME) on page 168.

Access: The carpark that we found is about 200-300m from the monument, a walk across gently undulating fields. Unfortunately, the fields were in crop so we couldn’t reach the monument.

The Langdysse i Ormstrup is on Langeland, and easy to find from Jaettestuekammer ved Kinderballe. Simply continue on the road south for a little over 0.5km, looking out for the road west to Ormstrup (called Tre Hoje but I can’t remember if there’s a sign).

Take this road – the parking and path to the langdysse are at the 2nd farm on the left, around 500m along.

Visited 5 April 2006
Looks like an absolute corker but we couldn’t get close as its field was in crop. We thought about walking down the ‘tramlines’ left by tractors, but without being able to speak Danish, we wimped out. Gah!

It’s possible you may also be able to reach the site from the next road to the south, maybe even when it’s in crop, but we didn’t have time to investigate.

Mentioned in The Megalithic European (TME) page 159, but this is not the main site that Julian talks about. That is Snibhøj. And when he refers to Snibhøj, he is actually referring to this monument!.

Access: See Snibhøj. From there, head back down to the village of Hannerup, but instead of going back the way you came through the village, turn right towards Snæbum (onto Snæbumvej).

If you’ve seen it from Snibhøj you won’t have trouble spotting the monument on the right (north) side of this road, just after a large farm on the left (south).

Visited 4 April 2006
There is no access to Spanskhøj from Snibhøj (well, there wasn’t when we went), so we thought we’d take a closer look from the nearest road and see if you could visit that way.

To be honest, it was pretty clear that the landowners didn’t want you to, and knowing that the passages have metal gates that were likely to be locked, we didn’t risk trying to sneak in under the noses of the busy neighbouring farms. We didn’t have time to ask, as it was getting late and we had a long way to go to get back to our base near Middlefart on the Isle of Fyn.

From the road, it’s pretty clear that Spanskhøj is like a very slightly smaller version of Snibhøj. And from the top of Snibhøj, it is clear that Spanskhøj has the same unusual layout – 2 passages to 2 separate chambers alongside each other (as does the wrecked tomb next to Snibhøj). Obviously not so ‘unusual’ around here!

Access: Visible and reached from tiny farm road near Petersgård. Walk of maybe 100 metres gently uphill across field. May not be accessible if field is in crop.

Confusingly, some maps only seem to show Løkkeby as being at the coast, while others show a small village close to Tullbølle as being Løkkeby.

The Langdysse ved Løkkeby is easy to reach from Bjerrebygaard. Continue north on the 305 to Tullbølle. A short way into the village, take a right (Skebjergvej), probably signposted to Løkkeby. At the end of this short road, take a right. Follow this road for a very short distance and take a left (this is Nordre Løkkebyvej, but I can’t remember if it had a sign to tell you that).

Continue for around 0.5km, then turn right (Løkkeby Srandvej) and follow this small road to bear right towards a farm on the right. The langdysse is a little way past on the right with trees growing from its mound. There is a space in the trees opposite where you can stop.

Visited 5 April 2006
Unfortunately we arrived at the langdysse with very little time to spare and in the middle of a heavy hailstorm. One of those where the hailstones actually ‘lay’, like snow.

Langeland Museum’s Oldtidsminder På Langeland calls the monument “Langeland’s smukkeste fortidsminder” (which as far as I can tell means ‘most beautiful’).

It’s nice but I don’t think I’d go that far – even allowing for the filthy weather and rushed visit! It reminded me a little of East Kennett longbarrow with far fewer trees. The weather was such that I couldn’t get any decent shots from further away to show its setting or even the whole monument.

We waited a few minutes & the hail abated somewhat, so I hurried across the field to the barrow. Like quite a few langdysse, the kerbstones are, curiously, partway up the mound. The capstone of the single chamber is exposed on the top of the mound and from what little I could see (and remember) from my rushed examination, the chamber looks like it is filled with earth.