Frydendal Kro

We’d spotted Nørreskov in James Dyer’s book ‘Discovering the Archaeology of Denmark’ and as we were so close thought we’d take a look even if we had already found Dyer to be slightly unreliable, banging on about finds and stuff rather than the monuments. (It’s always bloody pottery sherds and amber beads, too.)

Our first Nørreskov monument was at Frydendal Kro in the strip of woodland leading down to the sea. Here we found a rather cute little dolmen emerging out of a round barrow and right next to it, a short barrow (it wasn’t long) with a good stone cist in the top.

There were many others lurking in the woods like which went on for a few kilometres hugging the coast.

Suddenly it stopped raining and it looked as if even the sun might appear so we drove through the woods spotting birds (jays, anunidentified-but-mighty-raptor and a goldcrest!) and any suspicious humps with associated stones.

Approximate long/lat coordinates only, but shouldn’t be too hard to find – famous last words!

Access: In woodland, a short walk through the trees on fairly level & fairly even ground. May be boggy and/or slippery in wet weather. Just about visible from road – you can certainly see the road from the monuments, at least when the trees aren’t covered in leaves!

On the island of Als, so travel towards Sønderborg on the 8. Continue on the 8 until you are nearly at Fynshav, looking out for a turning left to Helleved (& probably Elstrup) – the road may be called Katry. Take this and prepare to take the next right, ‘Helved’ (not sure if there is a sign that tells you its name).

The road bears left and enters a forest. At the first crossroads (very approximately 1km along this road) turn right and pretty much immediately, the monuments are in the trees on your right.

Visited 2 April 2006
Here there is a dolmen in the almost flattened remains of its runddysse mound, and a very ‘shallow’ (flattened, I assume) langdysse with an open cist-like chamber.

Pretty underwhelming, but worth a look if you’re travelling to the more impressive sites in the area.

Apparently, on the other side of the road, there are 3 large burial mounds. We didn’t investigate, as the trees on that side seemed much more dense....