The Fyrkat Viking Ring Fortress

The Fyrkat Viking Ring Fortress

Get an experience with a tour of one of Harald Bluetooth's four large ring forts, whose exact purpose is still a mystery to archaeologists and historians, and hear about the political and military history of the Danish Viking Kingdom.

 On the trip we will look at the Viking Age and especially the stories about the many half-solved riddles that surround the world of the Vikings, and will share both facts, fiction and exciting anecdotes.

Harald Bluetooth's ring fort, of which Fyrkat is one, is a unique defense system that is not known in many other places in Europe.

The fortification is dated to 980 AD and laid out with surprising geometric precision. The fortress rampart is 12 m wide and its inner diameter is 120 m. It forms a perfect circle, and has four gates located next to each of the four corners of the world. From these gates run two roads that form an intersection and divide the great circle into four parts. Excavations have shown a number of longhouses from the Viking Age, whose size, number and location are again an expression of careful planning, symmetry and order. The location of roads and houses from the Viking Age can be seen marked on the ground. Nearby is a reconstructed longhouse, which we will also visit. Here it is possible to get really close to the past.

What were the reasons behind this impressive edifice? Why, after such careful planning and hard work, was it abandoned shortly after King Harald's death (in 986 or 987)?

Come and find the answer to these and more questions about the fascinating world of the Vikings!

This trip can be extended with an approx. 30 min. bus trip to Aars, where we will visit the local museum's exhibition of the world-famous Gundestrup cauldron, which dates from the Iron Age.

And / or the trip can be combined with a visit to the funeral plaque at Lindhold Høje north of Aalborg, which was in use through the Iron Age and Viking Age. Approx. 45 min. drive from Fyrkat.