Rønne; Sunday, 24 August, 2025

When I’d visited the Åland islands the previous year I’d found actually exploring beyond the capital Mariehamn quite difficult as even in the height of summer the bus service was pretty limited, with only a couple of buses running on a Sunday. Different Baltic Island and a very different approach to public transit – with several different bus routes covering the whole island running about every 2 hours even on a Sunday, and intersecting at different points around the island, meant that I’d been able to plan out a route for the day that got me to see much of the island – all assuming the service was as reliable as I hoped it was.

It did though mean getting up at 7am so I could have breakfast and make it out in time to catch the 8am number 2 bus from just outside the hotel up the west coast of the island to the ruins of Hammershus Castle. Everything went to plan, and I arrived on time to the minute at the castle ruins – which are open 24/7 – though given the rocky and uneven path I wouldn’t want to try going round in anything other than full daylight!

The Castle is described as the largest castle in Northern Europe and from a distance it looks pretty impressive with several large buildings and an imposing keep located high on a headland overlooking the sea and directly back to the Swedish mainland. Of course, over the years the castle has also been used as a convenient quarry and what remains today are just the shells of the buildings, so whilst you can go inside them, it is just the four walls, no roofs or really much internal, but it’s still a very impressive site to wander around, especially at 9 in the morning when you’ve pretty much got the whole site to yourself.

By the time I’d finished looking round the ruins the visitors centre and café had opened so I wandered over there to get some more information and to grab a quick coffee before picking up the number 10 bus 2 hours after I’d arrived to make the short journey a couple of miles up the coast to the small town of Sandvig and it’s ruined chapel and coastal path.

The chapel is located right on the beach and sits on a popular walking path that does a loop around the headland which includes the northernmost point on the island, so after looking round the chapel ruins I followed the path all the way around the headland, past the impressive lighthouse and back into the centre of Sandvig where I experienced my worst delay of the day on the bus network with my route 1 bus being a whole 4 minutes late, though by the time it dropped me off at my next destination it had made all that time up.

From Sandvig I’d headed inland, pretty much to the centre of the island and to the Ekkodalen. This is a rift valley, the longest in famously flat Denmark, running for about 12Km from close to the centre of the island to the North coast, though one key section close to the centre of the island is perhaps the most spectacular part and is home to a series of hiking trails, of which I followed one across the valley floor, then up to the top of the cliffs before following them along and onto the other attraction in the vicinity the Gamleborg Slotsruin.

This is the remains – and it’s little more than the stonework around the North and South entrances to the fort – of a Viking era fort occupying an area of flat land on the top of the ridge overlooking the Ekkodalen and, I’m assuming if the trees had been cut down at the time, over large parts of the island. I spent a little while exploring the fort before heading back down to the valley floor to visit one of the cafes at the main visitor entrance before heading back to the bus stop to continue my journey around the island.

Onto a number 3 bus and I retraced the route back up to the coast and the small harbour town of Gudhjem. The pretty town spills down the side of the cliff leading from the main road to the harbourside, including a very picturesque church built on a section of levelled ground from where there are excellent views over the harbour and town. The town was also the basis for the Danish time zone before the introduction of UTC with the town lying almost exactly 15 degrees east of Greenwich, therefore one 24th or one hour of the world away.

After exploring Gudhjem it was onto the penultimate bus of the day, the round island number 7 along the whole of the north and most of the east coast and down to the harbour town of Nexø, the second largest settlement on Bornholm. Nexø and Rønne were the only two towns on the island to be bombed during the second world war. On the night of VE day by the Soviets who then occupied the island for nearly a year before it was handed back to the Danes. The damage in Nexø was substantial, so unlike other locations on the island there aren’t as may pretty buildings, though there still are a few and I was able to fill the 30 or so minutes I had in the town before my final bus of the day.

Last bus was a number 4 back across the inland route of the island to Rønne where I once again grabbed some dinner from the Netto before retreating to my room to have dinner and rest both my feet from the 10 miles of walking, and my backside from the several hours of sitting on bus seats.