Hærvejen: Denmark’s Camino from Viborg to Jelling

Day 1: Arrive Viborg

Your hiking holiday 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 city during the Middle Ages. Take time to explore the old town centre and cathedral and walk down the lovely cobbled street St. Mogens Gade, where you will find several houses dating from the Middle Ages. You can also visit Søndermarks Church, where you will find a 10m long tapestry embroidered with scenes from your upcoming hiking route Hærvejen.

• Accommodation: Skuespiller Centralen or similar in Viborg

Day 2: Viborg – Dollerup Bakker | 15km

Leaving Viborg, you follow Hærvejen south into Liseborg Forest. For the next 8km, you walk along quiet forest paths through Viborg Hedeplantage, Viborg Krat and Langskov, before reaching the old inn Niels Bugges Kro (Inn), situated on the banks of Lake Hald (in Danish Hald Sø). North of Niels Bugges Kro, you can see the remains of a castle from the Middle Ages, and from here, there is a beautiful view over the lake. 300-400m north of the inn, you find Hald Hovedgård, where there is an exhibition of the area’s landscapes and culture. You continue about 3km along the lake to the beautiful hills of Dollerup Bakker. Most of the area around Hald Sø and Dollerup Bakker is protected as an area of outstanding natural beauty.

• Walking for the day: 15km, 4h, ↑150m ↓150m
• Accommodation: Hasselgren B&B or similar in Dollerup Bakker

Day 3: Dollerup Bakker – Thorning/Kjellerup | 14km

From Dollerup, you continue your hike through the little village of Skelhøje and along quiet forest tracks through Stendal and Havredal Plantage, where you see many protected burial mounds. You then walk along Ulvedal Plantage, passing a 4,000-year-old burial tomb known as The Cave of Jens Langkniv (Jens Langkniv was an outlaw – a Danish Robin Hood). After Ulvedal Plantage, you are picked up and taken to your accommodation for the night at the nearby village of Kjellerup.

• Walking for the day: 14km, 4h, ↑110m ↓75m
• Accommodation: Kjellerup B&B or similar in Kjellerup

Day 4: Thorning – Lake Bølling | 18km

After breakfast, transfer back to where you stopped Hærvejen the day before, close to the village of Thorning. You continue to the Haller Å stream, where the deep tracks from old carts are still visible leading down to the stream. After a few more kilometres, you reach the idyllic Grathe heath, where Svend Grathe was killed in the famous royal battle with Valdemar the Great, marking Jutland’s victory over the armies of Skåne and Zealand. Continue through Kompedal Plantage, where conscientious objectors were once doomed to forest work. Another forest path, through the beautiful Stenholt forest, takes you toward the northern shore of Lake Bølling. Here you are transferred by your host to your accommodation for the next two days.

• Walking for the day: 18km, 5h, ↑100m ↓100m
• Accommodation: Paarup Kro or similar in Sepstrup

Day 5: Lake Bølling – Sepstrup | 19km

A transfer takes you back to Lake Bølling, formed during the ice age about 10,000 years ago. The lake is famous because of the naturally mummified corpse of Tollund Man (displayed at Silkeborg Museum) discovered there, who lived during the 4th century BC. Today’s route takes you along the eastern shore of Lake Bølling, sometimes walking right by the lakeshore. South of the lake, you cross the stream Funder Å and walk through Hørbylunde, an undulating area of heather-covered hills and ancient oak thickets. With a terrain that rises nearly 80m from the ford to the top of Blaksdal Høj over a distance of only 1km, this is probably the closest you get to a Danish mountain landscape. About 1,5km from the route, on the top of Hørbylunde hill, a stone cross marks the spot where a German SS patrol killed the famous Danish priest and poet Kaj Munk on 4 January 1944. If taking this little detour to Hørbylunde hill, do not miss the beautiful view at the end of the marked path. Your walk finishes in the tiny village of Sepstrup, where you are picked up and transferred to your accommodation.

• Walking for the day: 19km, 5h, ↑204m ↓174m
• Accommodation: Paarup Kro or similar in Sepstrup

Day 6: Sepstrup – Nørre Snede | 24km

A short transfer in the morning back to Septstrup. From here, you continue southwards through Sepstrup Sande and then Vrads Sande. Both areas are inland dunes, a result of natural and 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 19th century. South of the village of Vrads, you continue between the Torup and Tingdal lakes before entering the Palsgård forest – one of the oldest in Jutland. If you want to learn more about the forest, you can visit the old forester farm, which has been converted into the forest museum Palsgård Skovmuseum. Shortly after, you arrive at your accommodation just outside the town of Nørre Snede.

• Walking for the day: 24km, 6h, ↑261m ↓254m
• Accommodation: Frisbæk Gamle Skole or similar in Nørre Snede

Day 7: Nørre Snede – Kollemorten | 15.5km

Today, you start with walking through Nørre Snede, where you can buy provisions for a picnic lunch. You can visit the church of Nørre Snede with its famous granite baptismal font, which is considered one of the finest of its kind in Denmark. You continue your hike south of Nørre Snede, passing Rørbæk Lake and then following a protected stretch of Hærvejen, with gravel roads and old wheel tracks. Via a small detour, you can see the trickling springs from where Denmark’s two biggest rivers – Gudenåen and Skjern Å – rise and flow in opposite directions: east and west. A little further on, you pass Saint Peder’s spring, which has attracted pilgrims for centuries because of its healing powers. Just before you arrive at your accommodation outside the town of Kollemorten, you see an old stone with the year 1856 and the names Kolding and Vester Mølle carved on it – this bears witness to the importance of Hærvejen in the mid-19th century. A pre-arranged transfer takes you from Kollemorten to your accommodation in a nearby B&B.

• Walking for the day: 15.5km, 4h, ↑129m ↓131m
• Accommodation: Give B&B or similar in Kollemorten

Day 8: Kollemorten – Jelling | 20km

After leaving the village of Kollemorten, Hærvejen leads you through an open agricultural landscape with scattered forests. Shortly after the town of Givskud, you pass the old inn Harresø Kro, which dates all the way back to 1609, making it one of the oldest preserved inns along Hærvejen. In 1759, a group of Germans stayed at the inn. Their payment was 13 strange ”fruits”, which were then planted in the inn’s garden. These “fruits” turned out to be potatoes – a rare sight in Denmark at the time! Finally, 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 Denmark’s most important historical monuments. They are also considered Europe’s finest Viking Age monuments and have been part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 1994. You should also check out the visitor centre “Kongernes Jelling”, where you can learn more about Christianity’s introduction to Denmark and the beginning of the Danish monarchy.

• Walking for the day: 20km, 5h, ↑71m ↓82m
• Accommodation: Skovdal Kro or similar in Jelling (Important: Skovdal Kro is 2km from the train station in Jelling. During the summer season, there is a free shuttle bus to take you to the train station on departure. At other times the hotel will be happy to order a taxi for you (fare not included, payment on the spot). There is a restaurant here that is closed on Sundays. If you stay here on a Sunday, we recommend you have your dinner in Jelling before coming to the accommodation.

Day 9: Departure

Your hike along Hærvejen from Viborg to Jelling has come to an end. We recommend that you stay an extra night in Jelling in order to explore the many interesting historical monuments.