Hærvejen: Denmark’s Camino

Your hiking holiday along Hærvejen starts in Viborg, where you stay in a B&B in the town centre. Viborg is an old episcopal residence and was Jutland’s most important and powerful city during the Middle Ages, which the impressive twin-towered cathedral bears witness to. Take time to explore the old town centre with the lovely cobbled street Sct. Mogens Gade, where you will find several houses dating from the Middle Ages. You can also visit Sortebrødre Church, which is the only building remaining from the old Dominican abbey, or Søndermarks Church where you will find a 10 m long tapestry embroidered with scenes from your upcoming hiking route Hærvejen.

Overnight: Viborg

Distance: 15 km | Ascent: 150 m | Descent: 150 m | Time: 4 hrs approx.

Leaving Viborg, you follow Hærvejen south into Liseborg Forest. For the next 8 km you will be walking along quiet forest paths through Viborg Hedeplantage, Viborg Krat and Langskov, before reaching the old inn Niels Bugges Kro, situated on the banks of Lake Hald (in Danish Hald Sø). You continue about 3 km along the lake and reach the beautiful heather-clad hills of Dollerup Bakker. Most of the area around Hald Sø and Dollerup Bakker is protected as an area of outstanding natural beauty. As you make your way along the ridge, you will enjoy wonderful views over the lake down below.

Overnight: Dollerup

Distance: 18.5 km | Ascent: 140 m | Descent: 100 m | Time: 4½ hrs approx.

From Dollerup you continue your hike through the little village of Skelhøje and along quiet forest tracks through Stendal and Havredal Plantage where you will see many protected burial mounds and old holloway tracks. You then walk through Ulvedal Plantage where the outlaw Jens Langkniv (Langkniv means ‘long knife’) lived in the end of the 16^th century and have had a 5,500-year-old long burial tomb named after him. It was also in this area that the famous Danish writer Steen Steensen Blicher lived and walked around picking up stories from the local farmers.

After Ulvedal Plantage, you will take a detour of almost two kilometres away from Hærvejen to the village of Thorning, where you can visit Blicher’s former rectory, which now houses a museum dedicated to him and the surrounding area. Your accommodation is located a further 2 km away along a quiet country road. You can either walk this or else your hosts will be happy to pick you up from the village.

Overnight: Thorning

Distance: 20 km | Ascent: 135 m | Descent: 120 m | Time: 5 hrs approx.

After breakfast you can either walk or get a lift from your hosts back to Thorning. From here, you continue south through the village of Nørre Knudstrup, and after about 3 km you are reunited with Hærvejen. Shortly after, you pass the Haller Å stream, where the deep tracks from old carts are still visible leading down to the ford. Here you will also find King Knap’s Dike, which is a 200 m long rampart from the Iron Age. It is also in this area that the Battle of Grathe Heath took place. Today, the heath is an idyllic spot, but on the 23^rd of October 1157 it was a battle scene where a bloody civil war led by the kings Svend Grathe and Valdemar the Great came to an end. Valdemar emerged triumphant and Svend was executed at the stroke of an axe.

Continue through Kompedal Plantage, where conscientious objectors were once condemned to forest work. South of here, in Stenholt Forest, you leave Hærvejen to follow a nature trail to your B&B in Engesvang village.

Overnight: Engesvang, Lake Bølling

Distance: 20 km | Ascent: 174 m | Descent: 143 m | Time: 5 hrs approx.

Today’s route starts out beautifully along the northeastern shore of the 360-acre lake Bølling Sø, formed during the ice age about 10,000 years ago. The lake is famous because of the discovery here of the naturally mummified corpse of Tollund Man (displayed at Silkeborg Museum), who lived during the 4^th century BC. After about 6 km you turn away from the lake through woodland and fields, before you cross under the bridge Funder Ådalsbro, which leads the motorway over Funder Valley. Denmark’s longest land bridge is an impressive sight from below!

You now find yourself in Funder Ådal surrounded by Hørbylunde Krat, which is an undulating area of heather-covered hills and ancient oak thickets – and probably the closest you get to a Danish mountain landscape. The old sunken laneways indicate that the ford has been a historically important crossing.

The end of the route takes you through the woodland Bødskov Krat and after a few paddocks you reach the tiny village of Sepstrup, where you will be picked up and transferred to your accommodation in a nearby inn.

Overnight: Pårup

Distance: 18 km | Ascent: 188 m | Descent: 214 m | Time: 4½ hrs approx.

Today begins with a short transfer back to Sepstrup. From here, you continue your walk through the distinctive and very beautiful Sepstrup Sande and then Vrads Sande. Both areas are inland dunes; a result of natural as well as human-influenced sand drifts over thousands of years. Covered in heather, crowberry and juniper, the two inland dunes lie between large heath plantations and long rows of pine trees dating from the end of the 19^th century. In many places you can see old wheel tracks from centuries of passage, as well as burial mounds from the Stone and Bronze Age.

After the two areas of inland dunes, you walk through the forests of Grane Plantage and then Tingdalskoven between Torup Lake and the Tingdal Lakes. The last few kilometres take you through Palsgård Forest, one of the oldest plantations in Jutland, and part of Boestmose moor. Shortly after, you will reach your accommodation outside the town of Nørre Snede.

Overnight: Nørre Snede

Distance: 19 km | Ascent: 188 m | Descent: 155 m | Time: 5 hrs approx.

After about 4 km of today’s route, you reach Nørre Snede, situated at the top of the Jutlandic ridge that splits Jutland into an eastern and western part. Afterwards, you walk through Nedergård Forest and then along the beautiful Groest Heath towards Rørbæk Lake. During WWII, the British Army dropped weapons here for the Danish resistance movement.

Then follows one of the most originial stretches of Hærvejen along a gravel road, which is protected from asphalting. The stretch exudes history, with ancient burial mounds in fields and old wheel tracks along the gravel road. Surrounding you is Denmark’s biggest oak thicket, and via a small detour you can visit the trickling springs from which the country’s two biggest rivers – Gudenåen and Skjern Å – rise and flow in opposite directions.

About 2 km before the village of Kollemorten, you pass the church Øster Nykirke, which is the highest standing church in Denmark (127 m). It was built between 1150-1200 as a shrine to Saint Peder’s spring (just east of the church), which has attracted pilgrims for centuries due to its healing powers.

The stage ends in Kollemorten where you will be picked up and driven to your accommodation in a nearby B&B.

Overnight: Give

Distance: 17.5 km | Ascent: 71 m | Descent: 82 m | Time: 4½ hrs approx.

After breakfast you get a lift back to Kollemorten.

Although today’s stage is probably the least scenically spectacular on the trip, it will give you a good insight into rural Jutland and you can also look forward to exciting historical exploration in the Viking town of Jelling. For most of the stage, Hærvejen goes through an open agricultural landscape of fields, farms, tractors and scattered woodland. Close to Givskud village, you will pass Knudshøje, a collection of protected burial mounds from the Early Bronze Age. Shortly after, you pass the old inn Harresø Kro, which dates to 1609, making it one of the oldest preserved inns along Hærvejen.

Your route ends in the kings’ town of Jelling; one of the most important towns of the Viking Age. The Jelling Monuments (a collective term for the church of Jelling, the Jelling stones and the two giant burial mounds), are considered Europe’s finest Viking Age monuments, and since 1994 they have enjoyed UNESCO World Heritage patronage. You should also check out the excellent visitor centre ‘Kongernes Jelling’.

If you wish to shorten the stage to have more time in Jelling, you can ask your hosts to drop you a bit further along the route.

Overnight: Jelling

Your hike along Hærvejen from Viborg to Jelling has come to an end. Consider staying for an extra night in Jelling so you have plenty of time to explore the many interesting historical monuments.