Denmark
Bornholm
A granite Baltic island of round fortress-churches, smokehouse chimneys and the biggest castle ruin in northern Europe.
Bornholm is a granite island out in the Baltic, closer to Sweden and Poland than to the rest of Denmark, and it does not look Danish: cliffs and pine along the north coast, pale almost powdery sand in the south, and Hammershus, the largest castle ruin in northern Europe, spread across a headland at the top. Inland stand four whitewashed round churches, built with walls thick enough to serve as refuges as well as parishes. The island smokes its own herring, fires its own ceramics and grows a striking amount of what it eats.
Suggested stay
3–5 days
Language
Danish
Currency
DKK
Timezone
UTC+2
Why you'll love Bornholm
Hammershus the largest castle ruin in northern Europe, walls and towers spread over a headland above the sea, open to walk into
The round churches four whitewashed cylinders with walls a metre and more thick, built to hold a parish and its valuables against raiders
Smoke tall white smokehouse chimneys around the coast, and smoked herring eaten on rye under a raw egg yolk
Two islands in one granite, pine and cliff paths in the north, dunes and long pale beaches in the south, half an hour apart
Best time to visit
May-Sep
14-21° days
55.099° N, 14.706° E
UTC+2 · Europe/Copenhagen
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Weather & when to go to Bornholm
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best May-Sep
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Bornholm
Bornholm is a summer island and honest about it. Outside the warm months a lot of the smokehouses, workshops, restaurants and places to stay close or drop to weekend hours, the boat out to the fortress islets stops, and the wind comes straight off the Baltic with nothing to break it. The problem in winter is less that the weather is hard than that half of what you came for is shut. The flip side is that the warm weeks are when Danes fill the island, and beds go early.
Top things to do in Bornholm
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Hammershus - the castle ruin on the headland
history 👍 PopularBegun by the archbishop of Lund in the thirteenth century and fought over for four hundred years, then abandoned and quarried for building stone until it was protected in 1822. What is left is enormous: curtain walls, a gate tower and a keep strung across a cliff headland with the sea on three sides.
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Osterlars Round Church
history 👍 PopularThe oldest and biggest of the island's four round churches, a white drum built around a massive hollow central pillar, with faded medieval frescoes inside and an upper storey that was a defensible store. Nylars, Olsker and Nyker are the other three.
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Dueodde - the white sand and the lighthouse
scenic 👍 PopularAt the southern tip, sand so fine it was once used in hourglasses, backed by dunes and pine and running for kilometres with room to lose everyone. A tall lighthouse behind the beach has stairs to a platform over the treetops.
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Gudhjem and the smokehouses
food ⭐ Highly recommendedSteep lanes of yellow houses dropping to a tiny harbour, with white smokehouse chimneys along the coast either side. The dish to order is sun over Gudhjem: smoked herring on dark rye with a raw egg yolk, radish and chives.
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Christianso - the fortress islets
history ⭐ Highly recommendedAn hour east by boat, two rocky islets fortified in the 1680s as a naval base against Sweden and still held directly by the state, with a garrison town, ramparts, no cars and about ninety residents. This is the easternmost point of Denmark.
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Svaneke
culture artsThe best-preserved of the island's merchant towns, ochre and yellow houses around a rock-cut harbour on the east coast, with a concrete water tower on splayed legs by the architect who designed the Sydney Opera House standing over it.
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Helligdomsklipperne - the sanctuary rocks
scenicGranite cliffs, sea stacks and a narrow cleft you can go into by boat on the north coast, with a coastal path along the top and the island's art museum built over a spring on the cliff edge above.
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Almindingen and Ekkodalen
nature wildlifeThe island's big forest in the middle, with a rift valley whose rock walls throw back a shout, a bison enclosure, and a lookout tower on the highest ground with the coast visible on both sides.
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The ceramics and glass workshops
shoppingBornholm has an unusual concentration of potters and glassblowers for its size, with a design school on the island and workshops scattered through the coastal villages where you watch the work being done in the room you buy it in.
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The coast path around the island
nature wildlifeA marked path runs right around Bornholm, well over a hundred kilometres of it, switching between granite cliff, fishing harbour, dune and pine. The northwest stretch between the castle ruin and the old quarries is the dramatic part.
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The granite at Vang and Hammeren
adventureDisused quarries cut into the northern headlands, with cranes and cut faces left behind, and the only natural rock climbing in Denmark on the granite above the sea.
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Cycling the old railway lines
adventureThe island's rail network closed decades ago and much of it is now a marked cycle route, so a couple of hundred kilometres of signed riding runs on gentle grades away from traffic, linking every coastal town.
Best areas to stay in Bornholm
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Gudhjem
First-time visitors $$Steep yellow lanes to a tiny harbour
Explore hotels in Gudhjem →
Ronne
Arriving & practical $$The island capital and ferry town
Explore hotels in Ronne →
Svaneke
Old town charm $$Ochre merchant town on the east coast
Explore hotels in Svaneke →
Allinge & Sandvig
Cliffs & walking $$North tip, granite coast, near the ruin
Explore hotels in Allinge & Sandvig →
Dueodde & Snogebaek
Beach families $Pine, dunes and the white beach
Explore hotels in Dueodde & Snogebaek →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Bornholm
Getting to & around Bornholm
Getting there
A short flight from Copenhagen, or the fast ferry from Ystad in Sweden, which is how most people arrive
Flight
Bornholm Airport (RNN)
The airport sits a few km southeast of Ronne, close enough that the town and the ferry berth are minutes away. Flights from Copenhagen take a little over half an hour, buses on the island network meet arrivals, and taxis and hire cars work from the terminal.
Ferry
Ronne
The fast ferry from Ystad in Sweden crosses in about an hour and twenty minutes and is the usual way in from Copenhagen, with a through train or coach to the Swedish port bookable as one journey
Ferry
Ronne
A slower ferry crosses from Koge, south of Copenhagen, taking most of a night, and a seasonal service runs from the German coast at Sassnitz
Train
Ystad, Sweden
There is no railway on Bornholm; the rail half of the journey ends at Ystad in Sweden, where the ferry berth is beside the platform. Carry a passport or identity card, since you transit Sweden
Getting around
Car
The island is roughly forty km across, so the north coast, the round churches and the southern beaches make one comfortable loop; hire from the airport or the ferry terminal
TBC
Bike
A couple of hundred kilometres of marked routes, much of it on old railway beds away from traffic, which is how a lot of Danes do the island
TBC
Bus
A network out of Ronne reaching every coastal town and the main sights, though services thin out considerably outside the summer months
TBC
Boat
Passenger boats run out to the fortress islets from Gudhjem and other harbours in the warmer months, and along the cliffs on the north coast
TBC
Walking
The marked coast path circles the whole island and links most of the harbour towns end to end
Free
Day trips from Bornholm
Christianso
Full dayFortress islets offshore
Two rocky islets an hour off the north coast, fortified as a naval station in the 1680s and never modernised: ramparts, a garrison town, a lighthouse in a tower and no cars at all. Denmark's easternmost ground.
Getting there
ferry | walk
1 hr by boat from Gudhjem, warmer months only
Hammershus and the north tip
Half dayCastle ruin & granite coast
The castle ruin on its headland, and beyond it the granite nose of the island: old quarries, cliff paths, rock pools for swimming at Sandvig and a chapel-shaped cliff standing out of the sea at Jons Kapel.
Getting there
bus | car | walk
30 min by bus or car north from Gudhjem
The round-church circuit
Full dayFour fortress churches
Osterlars, Nylars, Olsker and Nyker, spread across the middle of the island and easily done as one circuit, each a white drum with a conical roof, thick walls and a central pillar holding it all up.
Getting there
car | bus
A loop inland by car or bus
Dueodde and the south coast
Half dayWhite sand & dunes
The finest sand in the country, dunes and pine behind it, the lighthouse over the trees, and the small fishing harbours at Snogebaek and Nexo along the way back.
Getting there
bus | car
45 min by bus or car south
Almindingen and Ekkodalen
Half dayForest & rift valley
The interior forest, with the echoing rock walls of the rift valley, a herd of bison in an enclosure, and the tower on the island's high point looking out over both coasts.
Getting there
car | bus | walk
20 min by car from the coast
Ystad and Skane
Full daySweden across the water
The Swedish port the fast ferry uses is a half-timbered town in its own right, with a friary, cobbled lanes and the flat farm country of Skane behind it. Take a passport or identity card.
Getting there
ferry | train
1 hr 20 min by ferry west
A little history of Bornholm
Bornholm has been farmed and fought over for as long as anywhere in the region, and the finds are unusually rich for a small island: a site near Svaneke has produced thousands of tiny gold foil figures from the centuries before the Viking age. The round churches went up in the 1100s, when Wendish raiding made a church that could also be a strongpoint and a storehouse a sensible investment, and the archbishop of Lund began Hammershus on the northern headland in the following century. Ownership of the island was disputed between archbishop and crown for centuries, and it was pledged to Lubeck for fifty years in the 1500s.
The Treaty of Roskilde handed Bornholm to Sweden in 1658. The islanders rose within months, killed the Swedish commander and gave the island back to the Danish crown themselves, which is a story you will hear on the island. Herring, granite quarrying and later ceramics carried it through the following centuries. The last twist came at the very end of the Second World War: the German commander refused to surrender to the Soviets, Soviet aircraft bombed Ronne and Nexo in May 1945, and the Red Army occupied the island until the following spring.
The four round churches are built as parish church, store and refuge in one
The archbishop of Lund begins Hammershus on the northern headland
The island is pledged to Lubeck for the next half century
Ceded to Sweden, then taken back the same year by an islanders' uprising
The fortress on the Christianso islets is completed as a naval station
Hammershus is abandoned and quarried for stone until it is protected in 1822
Soviet aircraft bomb Ronne and Nexo; the Red Army occupies the island until the following spring
Know before you go
Payment
Cards everywhere
English
Everywhere
Wifi
Reliable
Power
Type C / F / K
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+45
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
FAQs about Bornholm
▸ How do you get to Bornholm?
Two normal ways. Fly from Copenhagen to Ronne in a little over half an hour, or take the fast ferry from Ystad in Sweden, about an hour and twenty minutes, with a through train or coach from Copenhagen to the Swedish port sold as one journey. There is also a slow overnight crossing from Koge and a seasonal ferry from the German coast. Carry a passport or identity card if you go via Sweden.
▸ How many days do you need on Bornholm?
Three is the working minimum, and it is a rushed three. Four or five lets you take the north coast, the round churches, the southern beaches and a boat to the fortress islets without driving everywhere twice. A beach summer here easily runs a week.
▸ Do you need a car on Bornholm?
No. The island is small, the buses reach every coastal town, and the old railway lines have been turned into a couple of hundred kilometres of cycle route, which is the way many Danes see it. A car mainly saves time on the inland round churches and outside the summer, when buses thin out.
▸ What are the round churches?
Four whitewashed cylindrical churches from the 1100s, at Osterlars, Nylars, Olsker and Nyker. Each is built around a massive central pillar with walls thick enough to defend, and an upper floor used as a store and refuge when raiders came. Osterlars is the largest and the one to see if you only see one.
▸ Is Bornholm worth visiting outside the summer?
It is quieter and the coast is still beautiful, but be clear-eyed about access: many smokehouses, workshops and restaurants close or go to weekend hours, the boat to the fortress islets stops running, bus services thin, and daylight is short. Late spring and early autumn are the honest compromise.
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