Skjoldungernes Land National Park

Skjoldungernes Land was designated a national park in 2015 and covers roughly 170 square kilometres of Zealand around the inner arms of Roskilde Fjord. It is a worked landscape rather than a wilderness: shallow sheltered water with low islets and nesting birds, the beech woods of Boserup and Bidstrup, meltwater valleys with wet meadow along the bottom, hedged farmland and the parkland of old estates. Burial mounds and other prehistoric traces sit in the fields around Lejre, where the ground has been settled for thousands of years. Two railway lines and several bus routes cross the park, and the fjord is calm enough that kayaks and open canoes are a common way to see it.

What you actually see

• Roskilde Fjord - shallow sheltered water with low islets, good for kayaks and full of birds.
• Boserup Forest - beech and oak running down to the fjord shore with small beaches below.
• The Lejre valley - a meltwater valley of meadow and mounds with long views over farmland.
• Estate landscape - avenues, parkland and old field patterns around the manor houses.

When to go

May and June for beech leaf and birdsong, September for still water and clear light. The fjord is busiest with boats in July. Winter brings large numbers of wintering waterfowl onto the water, though the wind off the fjord is cold and the daylight runs out early in the afternoon.

Honest expectations

There is no single entrance, no headline feature and very little signage announcing that you have arrived, which leaves plenty of visitors wondering what the national park actually is. The good parts are scattered and best linked by bicycle or car. Some of the shore is private, and mud on the meadow paths lingers well into spring.

Nearby

Roskilde with its cathedral and Viking ships sits at the head of the fjord; Copenhagen is half an hour by train.