August heather
The hills turn entirely purple at the end of summer.
Mikkel Houmøller — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Sebastian Nils — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Sebastian Nils — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Sebastian Nils — CC BY-SA 3.0
A national park on a peninsula east of Aarhus, and the nearest thing Denmark offers to mountain scenery — by its own standards. The hills here were made by **ice**: at the end of the last glaciation the edge of a glacier halted at this spot, pushed a bank of gravel and clay ahead of it, then melted and left it. The result is a run of rounded hills and closed hollows, the highest being **Agri Bavnehøj at 137 metres** — modest, but in a flat country it gives a view stretching tens of kilometres. The ground is covered in purple **heather**, dry grassland and pasture grazed by cattle and horses — an open landscape unusual in northern Europe. The park is not pure wilderness but an **inhabited landscape**: working farms, small villages, medieval churches and Stone Age dolmens all sit inside it. On its edge is the town of **Ebeltoft**, with leaning timber houses and cobbled streets, and the wooden frigate **Jylland**. Note: **there is no entrance and no ticket office** — it is an open park entered from many roads. You need a car.
The hills turn entirely purple at the end of summer.
Leaning timber houses and cobbles on the park's edge.
Stone Age burial chambers standing among the pasture.
Mols peninsula, about 45 km east of Aarhus
By car, about an hour from Aarhus. A tested order: drive out in the morning to **Agri Bavnehøj** for the high point and the view, then a short walk on one of the marked trails through the hills and heather (one to two hours is enough). Lunch in **Ebeltoft**, then the old town and the frigate **Jylland** in the afternoon. If time is left, the sandy beach at **Femmøller** or the **Poskær** dolmen. ⚠ There are no restaurants in the hills themselves — carry water and food. ⚠ The country roads are narrow and some unsurfaced, so drive slowly.
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