Updates to the Museum Act, which Acting Culture Minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen implemented this summer, could end the dispute on the hand railing, the newspaper Jyllands-Posten reports.

The change in the law came into force at the end of the summer. Thus, it seems that the railing, which a group of pensioners put up, can remain standing.

Until now, no railings have been allowed on tumuli such as this.

According to Jyllands-Posten, the argument for the ban was “to protect historical monuments from destruction”.

A ten-year-long dispute

Ten years ago, during an inspection, the Danish Cultural Heritage Agency discovered that a railing had been installed at the stairs to the Bette Jens Hyw lookout post.

From there, people usually enjoy a view of Mors, Thy, and Himmerland. The railing was removed after the inspection.

A group of residents then began to put up new railings in protest against the ban on railings. Every time, the agency and Skive Municipality acted, removing new hand railings.

Halsboe-Jørgensen is not the first minister to have visited the disputed site.

In 2019, then Minister of Culture Mette Bock also visited Fur. She refused to lift the handrail ban at the time, saying that if she were to give permission to Fur, she would also have to give permission to such actions everywhere else.

However, the residents continued to put up railings.

“We have been dealing with it for a few years now and put up five railings,” Anton Simonsen told Jyllands-Posten.

He has lived on Fur since 1964. Now, however, his year-long battle for the railing may soon be over, as this week, Skive Municipality decided to send out an application for dispensation from the railing ban.