Lindholm Høje

OVERVIEW

Lindholm Høje — Lindholm Hills, from the Old Norse *haugr*, a mound — is a major Viking burial site and former settlement on high ground north of Aalborg. The southern, lower part dates to 1000–1050 AD, the Viking Age; the northern, higher part is considerably earlier, going back to the fifth century AD in the Nordic Iron Age.

HISTORY

The site was overwhelmed by drifting sand, which is why it survives. The sand sealed the graves and the fields and kept them from being ploughed out, and when excavation began in the twentieth century the archaeologists found not only the graves but the marks of the last ploughing before the land was abandoned. Around 700 graves have been identified, many of them marked with stones set in the outline of a ship.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

No haunting is claimed and none is needed. The entry records a burial ground of 700 people, laid out in stone ships so that the dead were given vessels, preserved by an accident of weather and walked over freely today by anyone who wants to. The museum beside it holds the finds.

VISITING

The burial field is open and free; Lindholm Høje Museet beside it charges. Nørresundby, across the fjord from Aalborg.