Stevns Klint UNESCO World Heritage Site

NOTE: Due to a major cliff collapse at Stevns Klint near Harvig between Rødvig and Højerup, this part of the hiking path Stevns Klint Trampesti is closed. Stevns Municipality encourages visitors to consider whether they should walk along the cliff until safety is further investigated. Walking on Stevns Klint Trampesti and along the cliff is always at one's own risk.

When you visit Stevns Klint, you experience the story of dramatic events up close – from the extinction of the dinosaurs to the nuclear threat during the Cold War – but you also encounter the story of how fortunate we are. 

In 2014, Stevns Klint was placed on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites, joining some of the world’s most important and unique attractions. In other words, this is one attraction you simply cannot miss.  

When Stevns Klint became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it was primarily due to the thin layers of fish clay clearly visible in the cliff, which document the meteor that, among other things, led to the extinction of the dinosaurs more than 66 million years ago.

The meteor impact had a devastating global effect on the Earth, and it’s estimated that only approx. 40% of all the Earth’s animals and plants survived the disaster. Researchers can deduce this by studying the layer of fish clay in Stevns Klint, which contains large amounts of the rare element iridium, which came from the asteroid that collided with Earth. 

It was quite a disaster that hit Earth at the time, but fortunately the yellowish white chalk also found around Stevns Klint shows how life returned to the planet in force. So although tales of doom lurk in the limestone layers, just like the cliff itself, we are (fortunately) still here.

If you want to know more about the history and nature at Stevns Klint, you can book a trip with Klintetours.
If you would rather experience the beautiful cliff from the water, Klintens Boattours offers a 2-hour boat trip. 

At Stevns Klint Experience Centre, you can meet Lucky the mammal – named because of just how lucky we are to be here – and learn more about a simultaneously deadly and life-giving chapter in the lifespan of the planet and man. Lucky, because life went on. The dramatic story is brought to life in the Experience Centre’s cinema, projected on a giant limestone block carved out of Stevns Klint itself, while the exhibition presents dinosaur skeletons, meteorites, fossils and interactive games. Just the ticket for the future’s little natural scientists!

1. Leave the drone at home – for wildlife’s sake.
2. We love bicycles – but the footpath is reserved for pedestrians only.
3. Dogs are welcome – always on a leash.

1. The cliffs are composed of four layers: Soft chalk at the bottom, above that the fish clay, then the hard limestone and at the top we find traces of the last ice age.

2. Right up to the 1900s, bryozoan limestone was sawn out of the cliffs at Stevns Klint and used as a building material. Today, this material is known as limestone.

3. The cliff is approx. 65 to 71 million years old.