Gribskov

Gribskov covers around fifty square kilometres between Hillerod and Lake Esrum, making it one of the largest forests in Denmark, mostly beech and spruce on hilly ground left by the ice, with small lakes and bogs among the trees. Its shape is historical: in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the kings used it for par force hunting, the formal chase in which deer were run down by hounds, and to make that possible the forest was cut through with a geometric grid of straight rides radiating from star-shaped junctions, marked by numbered stones. That grid survives and is still the path network. Together with Store Dyrehave and Jaegersborg Dyrehave it was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2015 for that hunting landscape.

What you actually see

• The baroque hunting grid - straight rides radiating from star junctions.
• Numbered stone markers - the eighteenth-century survey still in place.
• Beech and spruce on glacial hills - the forest floor and its small lakes.
• Lake Esrum on the eastern edge - open water at the forest boundary.

When to go

April to October, with May for beech leaf and October for colour. Half a day walking or cycling; the rides make navigation easy. The local railway line stops at several forest halts, which suits a linear walk.

Honest expectations

It is a working forest with logging operations and closed sections. Paths flood in winter and after rain. There is little in the way of facilities or signage explaining the World Heritage designation. Ticks are present, so check afterwards.

Nearby

Esrum Abbey is on the lake shore; Frederiksborg Castle is south at Hillerod.