Vildtbanestenen ved Læborg

When you come hiking or cycling along the Hærvej route between Bække/Asbo and Læborg, you can glimpse an old burial mound with a large stone pole on top – approximately between Asbovej no. 54 and 50 behind newly planted Christmas trees and a three-row windbreak.

This pole is one of the approximately 150 remaining game baits, or game track poles, as they are also called. They are protected and tell us about the power relations of the past in society. This game stone at Læborg has helped to mark the delimitation of the royal hunting grounds for Koldinghus County. There has been a game stone with a distance of about 1-2 km. The stone here is probably in its original location, as the mound is located on the border between the old Koldinghus and Ribehus Len. 

Since the 1500s, Danish kings have had extensive hunting grounds for their own consumption. These game tracks were clearly marked so that no one was in doubt about where they went and when you might have committed a crime by going hunting. Initially, the game track poles were made of wood, were painted and provided with an inscription. Around 1760, granite stones were used, and it is from this period that the game track stone here originates. It bears Frederik V's monogram, the year 1760 and the number 5. This number told which number in the row the stone was. At the top of the stone, a royal crown has been carved. Originally, the game track stones were 30-45 cm x 25-35 cm at ground level and 2 meters high, so it has stood as significant points of reference in the landscape. Location on burial mounds as here was much used. Together with ditches and dikes, they have formed a dividing line. Within the marking, it was forbidden and associated with severe penalties to engage in hunting. It was sheriffs and peasants who had to make sure that the poles were put up. Around the year 1800, the wilderness stones lost their function and fell into disrepair.

Along the Ancient Road you will also find the game stone at Hald near Viborg and at the Bov Museum there is a piece of one of the very old wooden poles that used to stand close to the Ancient Road. Today, a copy should have been set up on site.