The Mønsted Lime Pits

Visit Mønsted Kalkgruber, the world’s largest lime pits, and explore a beautiful and magnificent subterranean world.

You will discover an endless maze of galleries with caves as large as cathedrals, trickling streams and subterranean lakes.  A unique experience which tells us about impresisve work done by hand by tough women and men in Central Jutland.

They say that this area holds a 60-kilometer-long network of galleries.  In Mønsted Kalkgruber you can walk 4 kilometers of the galleries of which 2 kilometers are illuminated.

While you’re here:

• During weekends and school holidays, you can meet the knowledgeable guides who tell you about the exciting history of the location, the bats and the people who used to work in the mines.

• The limeworks is the oldest industrial building in Denmark made from wood. Here the lime was burnt until 1980. The limeworks is a listed building, which now accommodates a museum with an exciting story about hard work and early industrial history.

• The Natura2000 area which encircles the Mønsted Kalkgruber. A rare natural scenery which is worth protecting and which cannot be experienced anywhere else.
• From mid-June You can learn more about geologi with a new exhipition in the limestone mine.
• The impressive playground for bats, where you can crawl around on five different bat species.

• The cafe which offers light Danish dishes (check the opening hours at https://monsted-kalkgruber.dk/en)

Mønsted Kalkgruber is the winter home of more than 10,000 bats. Owing to their season of hibernation, the lime pits are closed during the winter period from 1 November until mid-March.

In 2019, Mønsted Kalkgruber received a nature award for its many beautiful barrier-free footpaths.