The Limfjord was a kind of Viking motorway providing easy, speedy access to the Atlantic for longboat raiding parties. It’s not surprising, then, that the most important piece of Aalborg’s historical heritage is a predominantly Viking one.
The atmospheric Lindholm Høje is a Viking burial ground where nearly 700 graves from the Iron Age and Viking Age are strewn around a hilltop pasture ringed by a wall of beech trees.
Many of the Viking graves are marked by stones placed in the oval outline of a Viking ship, with two larger end stones as stem and stern. At the end of the Viking era the whole area was buried under drifting sand and thus preserved until modern times.
Lindholm Høje Museet adjoins the site and explains its history, and has displays on finds made during its excavation. Murals behind the exhibits speculate on how the people of Lindholm lived.
Lindholm Høje is 15 minutes north of central Aalborg via bus 13. With your own wheels, head north from the centre over Limfjordsbroen to Nørresundby, and follow the signs.