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Denmark: Latest Posts |
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Mols (Runddysse) — Fieldnotes |
| This amazing Dolmen is from around 3300 BC and is the largest round barrow in Denmark. The circle is made up of 235 ton stones. There used to be 24 but one was cut up by a stone cutter in the 1890s. The capstone is 21 tons. The spring equinox sun shines through the entrance. |
Posted by hamish3rd August 2007ce Edited 4th August 2007ce |
Mols (Runddysse) — Images (click to view fullsize) |
   
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Posted by hamish 3rd August 2007ce |
Langeland (Island) — Fieldnotes |
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In The Megalithic European, Julian pays little more than a double page spread of lip-service to the long, glorious island of Langeland off the southern coast of Fyn in Denmark, almost certainly due to lack of space in the book and time in the field. The thing that doesn't come over in Julian's commentary is the sheer variety, intensity and close proximity of monument after monument in this small finger of land. It took us two days to do it justice. The bridges to get there are mercifully toll-free and the rolling countryside on the island is more enchanting even than the rest of Denmark. Langeland is home to scores of bird species and hares and deer abound. The main town on the island is Rudkøbing which felt very strongly like a far less bleak Kirkwall. |
Posted by Jane3rd August 2007ce |
Bjerrebygaard (Dyssekammer) — Fieldnotes |
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It was Moth's birthday and while we were waiting for our friends to join us for some lunch, we quickly zipped out to see Bjerrebygaard dolmen. We arrived in blazing sunshine and galloped over the muddy field to reach the stunning monument, cluster of large stones, dolmens with giant capstones and six monster, gnarled 'pantomime' oak trees sticking out of a large mound. Very dramatic. We spent some time enjoying it until the sky in the northwest darkened suddenly and a wall of weather closed in. We made it back to the car just in time as a full-on blizzard of hailstones pelted down. |
Posted by Jane 3rd August 2007ce |
Mols (Runddysse) — Fieldnotes |
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Its pretty remote up here on the beautiful Djursland peninsula, just north west of Århus, but quite gorgeous. It's the most beautiful part of Denmark I had yet seen. I wanted to see Poskær Stenhus – surely the most picturesque place in TME! As we arrived the sun came out unbroken and I scampered about the monument like a happy bunny. Moth climbed the Tinghulen to get some height some photos and I, after speaking to a woman tending her horses (who, with the horse she currently tended had once lived in Lambourn) sat and found the view where the light was just right for me to paint. Poskær Stenhus is essentially the skeleton of a monument exactly like Groenhøj – gorgeous pink kerbstones, bit of a passage, nice chamber complete with capstone, bob's yer uncle. But the setting here is so very fabbie. Rolling fields and hills, great views, green pasture, heathy bits – oooh! And the nicest thing it's that somehow its all on a human scale. Nothing here is grand or majestic or mighty. It's all rather comfortable and nice. I like that. It should be noted that at Poskær Stenhus visitors will find excellent toilets, so for once, ladies, you don't need to pee in the open and risk mooning as passers-by. I even managed to make a sketch here. Happy Jane. |
Posted by Jane 3rd August 2007ce |
Groenhøj — Fieldnotes |
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Groenhøj chambered tomb, near Horsens, is a perfect pincushion of a monument, not unlike the Great Cairn on Porth Hellick Down, Scilly, but bigger. It has a continuous ring of handsome kerbstones and a good high grassy mound. Like so many of the monuments in Denmark, the stones are lovely sparkly pink and grey. It has a very narrow corridor which I probably could have wriggled through to reach the chamber but as it was wet underhoof and I was wearing my only clean pair of jeans so I didn't bother. At its 1940 excavation, thousands of pottery sherds were unearthed here, the breaking of which was some kind of ritual associated with the use of the mound. Today, under blue skies with big fluffy clouds and chaffinches darting around in the trees Groenhøj looked very 'hygge' (Danish for cosy). |
Posted by Jane 3rd August 2007ce |
Baronens Høj (Runddysse) — Fieldnotes |
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We went to seek out what Dyer describes as: 'a fine round dolmen with a central burial chamber and a ring of kerbstones', the Baronens Høj. He should have just said: 'it's f*cking ace, Jane!' The setting, the construction, the character and the fact that the sun came out while we were there lifted my heart! What a beautiful place. It perches like a little crown 25 feet above the sea in a clearing which it shares with an old farmhouse. It reminded me of Innisidgen on Scilly which 'feels' the same. Its immediate neighbour, the old farmhouse was that very distinctive shade of Danish yellow and its thatch was thickly covered in moss. When the sun came out it glowed green and bright – it felt like it was the first time I'd seen Denmark in colour. That was it. Time to get the paints out. At bloody last! |
Posted by Jane 3rd August 2007ce |
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