The story of Lindholm Høje

Walk among the stones on this hillside and you will notice that many of them are laid out in the shape of ships. This is one of the great Viking burial sites, and the ship settings here are the largest group of well-preserved examples known. The name comes from the Old Norse haugr, a hill or mound.

The higher, northern part goes back to the 5th century, in the Nordic Iron Age, while the lower part dates from the Viking Age, 1000 to 1050. Excavations that began in 1952 eventually covered 589 of about 700 graves. Most of the dead were cremated, and the shape and size of a stone setting seem to show the status of the person buried there. A settlement stood here too, at an important crossing of the Limfjord, and finds of glass, gems and Arab coins show it was a centre of trade.

Around 1200 it was abandoned, probably buried by drifting sand, and that sand protected the site for centuries.