Yding Skovhøj in Horsens municipality

Horsens municipality

Horsens municipality is a municipality in Region Midtjylland on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. The municipality includes the island of Endelave, and covers an area of 542 km². It has a total population of 81,957 . Its mayor is Jan Trøjborg, a member of the Social...

, Jutland

Jutland

Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...

 is one of Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

's highest points. Its height is 172.54 m above sea level when the height of one of the Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 burial mounds built on the top of the hill is included. If these man-made structures are ignored the hill's highest point is at 170.77 m, which is 9 cm lower than Denmark's highest natural point, Møllehøj

Møllehøj

Møllehøj is the highest natural point in Denmark at . It is in the Ejerbjerge hills in Skanderborg municipality, very close to Ejer Bavnehøj. The summit is marked with a millstone, a remnant of Ejer mill which was situated on the hill from 1838 to 1917...

 at 170.86 m. Ejer Bavnehøj

Ejer Bavnehøj

Ejer Bavnehøj is the third-highest natural point in Denmark . It lies in the southern part of Skanderborg municipality, between the villages of Riis and Ejer....

 is Denmark's third highest natural point at 170.35 m.

Yding Forest covers the hill. Within the forest there are three Bronze Age burial mounds. Høj, from the Old Norse

Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....

word haugr, can be translated to mean hill or mound. The highest point is the central mound. The eastern burial mound is 171.73 m high and the western one is 171.41 m high.

History

Ejer Bavnehøj had been measured as the highest point in Denmark in the mid-nineteenth century but in 1941 new measurements established that the top of one of Yding Skovhøj's burial mounds was higher. This started a violent discussion about whether man-made structures could be counted as part of Denmark's highest point which finished with Professor N.E. Nørlund defining the highest point as being the highest natural point, without including the height of man-made piles of earth. As Ejer Bavnehøj was higher than the highest natural point of Yding Skovhøj it was then regarded as being Denmark's highest point until February 2005 when researchers discovered that in reality Møllehøj was slightly taller.