Øhavsstien

The Archipelago trail

Moderate
7+ hours
35 km

 

The Øhavssti is a well-established trail with iffy maps and a good guidebook - my recommendation is to use those or my app, or carry all of them if you like. It is well-signposted (for the most part) with the distinctive blue symbol on short posts. It can be walked in one day although it is a long old haul. The direction does not matter EXCEPT for the wind! I usually check the Danish Met website and plan to walk with a tailwind if possible.

Shorter sections are easy to plan, especially by using the free buses which go every hour. I break it into the following which are about 2.30 each:

  • Marstal/Ærøskøbing

  • Ærøskøbing/Bregninge (it’s a bit of a walk from/to the bus stop near the church)

  • Bregninge/Søby.

If you want to make it 2 sections then the best option is to split the walk at Ærøskøbing, although the two “halves” are unequal.

Weather - as well as thinking about the wind direction, check the sea level - the section on the beach between Bregninge and Ærøskøbing is usually impassable if the sea level is a metre or more higher than usual. And the leg between Ommel Church and Kragnæs can get VERY wet in winter, and occasionally can be impassable.

Notes on Øhavssti guide. The guidebook is pretty good but has a few errors:

  • At Stokkeby Nor there were actually two forts to defend against 11th century Wendish raiders, and I think he has confused them. The one at the east end (where there are a few remains) was not the “Stilt Fort” he refers to - that was at the west end, and has vanished.

  • He describes the houses on Molen as “fishermen’s cottages” but that’s misleading, and Ærøskøbing was a trading centre, not a fishing port. Several of the houses were “købmandsgårder”, where trading took place, and the biggest houses were later bought by successful Ærøskøbing captains. The best sailors were often based in California - hence all the house names like Alameda, California, and Solvang. One of the very best was Frederik Sofus Birkholm, (my wife’s great grandfather) who skippered the five master “George E Billings” out of San Francisco, and bought “Pacific”, where he eventually settled with his wife Anne.