Holiday homes:  Allinge,  Bornholm,  Denmark

Bornholm and the small islands called Ertholmene are the easternmost islands of Denmark. You will find Bornholm in the middle of the Baltic Sea, and this is the only part of Skåne (southern Sweden) left on Danish hands. Thanks to its location Bornholm is a very sunny island with a clear and special light that attracts many artists.

You often hear that Bornholm and its nature reflects all of Denmark as it is hilly and green with rich plough-land and a huge forest. Bornholm is also the only place in Denmark where you will find dramatic cliffs, and on the southern coast there is a large, white sandy beach.

The bedrock lies very close to ground surface, and especially in the northern part of the island there are dramatic groups of cliffs along the coast, like for instance Løvehovederne and Jons Kapel between Hammerknuden and Hasle and the tall Helligdomsklipper rising from the sea (up to 22 metres) between Tejn and Gudhjem.

Hammerknuden is located in the northernmost part of Bornholm consisting in one big group of rocks descending sheer to the sea. On top you will find the huge Hammershus Slotruin (castle ruins) and south of this the biggest lake of Bornholm called Hammersø. They quarried granite at Hammeren until the nineteenseventies but today the quarries have been closed, and the area has been transformed into a nature area with two artificial lakes – Opalsøen and Krystalsøen.

Along the coast and in the middle of the island there are small and big rift valleys, and the open grottoes, the socalled ovens, are found near Jons Kapel and Helligdomsklipperne among other places.

Almindingen is one the largest forests in Denmark, and here you will find the biggest rift valley called Ekkodalen (Echo Valley) and the highest point of the island called Rytterknægten (162 metres). Paradisbakkerne (Paradise hills) are a unique forest with moors and a lot of rift valleys in the hilly, rocky landscape.

Dueodde Strand is in the southern part of Bornholm – this is the biggest sandy beach of the island with sand of a so fine quality that it was used for hour glasses in the old days. There is also a lot of rather small beaches in Bornholm – and from many of them you can go swimming directly from the cliffs.