Peak 40 | Møllehøj, Denmark | 170m | 24th August 2019
- Adam Stevenson
- Aug 24, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 4, 2020
The Danish sure have made a mountain out of a molehill for their high point. Despite it being the lowest peak on the list outside the micro-states of the Vatican and Monaco, it has got a surprisingly controversial and complicated history behind it that has seen it flipping locations on numerous occasions in some bizarre turn of events.
Quick Summary
• Starting point - Ejer Bavnehøj carpark
• Route taken - Ejer Beacon Hill Loop
• Total ascent - Minimal
• Total length - 1½ km round trip
• Total time - 20 minutes
• Expense category - #VeryLow
• Equipment - #None
• Difficulty - #Level1 of 5
• Enjoyment - #2star of 5*
Co-ordinating my peak's along with my friend's schedules, I was traveling with had worked out perfectly after completing the Czech Republic's Sněžka. They both had a stag weekend to attend to in Prague, so we went straight from the high point to drop them off there. In any regular, non-world-record scenario, I would have stayed myself. But I was committed to the 'mountains,' and I had a very tight schedule over the following few days.
I would need to drive the car from Prague. Get the high points of both Denmark and Norway done. Then get the car back to Oslo, where I would do a quick car exchange with my friends again before I would fly to London for my Russian visa. It involved over 2400km of driving and a full day of hiking, and I had just four days to fit it in.
So I only planned to make a swift detour from my route up when driving up to Norway's highest. But the weather was perfect and very warm, so I decided to take a slightly longer pit stop and take the 1.5 km loop around the fields that pass another location that was previously through to be Denmark's highest patch of land.
They built this great big watchtower there in the belief that it was the highest. However, someone did another survey of the area and found it to be 300m away. The controversy over the right location frankly gave a bit of interest to what would otherwise have been a completely bland peak.
A walk up to the top of the nearby watchtower and a quick coffee, and I carried on with my driving marathon to Galdhøpiggen. I just had 1200km and 15 hours of driving left to get there!
Disputed - what is really the highest point of Denmark?
To further add to the confusion to the mainland peak, you will also find that different sources may place the high point of Denmark on one of its dependencies in either Greenland or on the Faeroe Islands. But solely on the subject of ticking off the European High Points and reflecting on thorough research, I believe that Møllehøj makes the most logical choice for achieving this goal.
I'll explain why...
Firstly, Greenland is geographically part of North America and a fully autonomous territory. But as we are focusing just within the boundaries of Europe here, the 3694m Gunnbjørn Fjeld in Southern Greenland is excluded from the list.
Whereas, while the Faeroe Islands are geographically within Europe, they too are a fully self-governing territory with their own parliament, laws, president, language, and even national sports teams.
So sticking to the same ruling set for Portugal and Spain to maintain a continued consistency; these autonomous territories that are riddled with political grey-areas & viewpoints would not be included in the overall challenge.
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