Maglehøj and Muldhøj
Intro
Two large, domed burial mounds - Maglehøj and Muldhøj – are situated in prominent positions at the entrance to Ry – respectively north and south of Skanderborgvej.
In 1897 they were both preserved by the Danish National Museum. At that time Mulhøj was 3 metres high with a diameter of 22 metres, while Maglehøj was a little larger, 3½ metres high and 25 metres in diameter. On both mounds there were traces of much earlier excavations – meaning that at some time, someone has been looking for finds in the mounds.
In 1948, experts from the National Museum of Denmark returned to study the mounds once again. On Mulhøj a new excavation was found and the owner recalled that the Germans had been busy there during the war.
The protection of ancient monuments and sites means that the mounds must lie free in the landscape, and building is not allowed within a distance of 100 metres from the foot of the mound.
The Heritage Agency of Denmark has prepared a map of Denmark showing archaeological sites particularly worthy of preservation – archaeological heritages. The area around Muldhøj and Maglehøj has been designated as such a site, also because in the same area twelve other burial mounds are registered. These have not been protected but instead ploughed over.
This group of burial mounds may signify that during antiquity there was a road from Dover Church in the east to the River Gudenåen at Holmens Camping and Falgårde in the west. Many of the burial mounds are said to be from the early Bronze Age, but also finds from the Stone Age have been discovered in some of them.