In the footsteps of Tycho Brahe on the Swedish island of Ven

Skåneleden is a 1000+ km hiking trail through the Swedish region Scania, which also includes a 12 km trail on the island of Ven. Located between Sweden and Denmark in the Öresund Strait, Ven is the perfect merge of the two countries. It’s only a few hours away by boat from Landskrona, Råå and Helsingborg in Sweden and Copenhagen and Rungsted in Denmark, making it the perfect short getaway.

A few days before travelling to Russia for five weeks in late May, I decided to visit Ven and invited my friend Mads along for a day trip. We left Copenhagen at 9 AM and headed across the border to Sweden and to the tiny hilly island. The sailing trip was lovely, and it revealed a beauty that I didn’t expect Ven to have. High grassy slopes line the coastline, and the tiny harbour village of Bäckviken revealed colourful and quaint houses. It seemed more like a typical Danish island, but with a Swedish twist.

We got off the ferry after 1 hour and 40 minutes on the water and started hiking southwest towards the lighthouse at Vens södra udde (“the southern tip of Ven”). There were a lot of tourists on the island that day, by far outnumbering the 400 inhabitants. The vast majority of them rented bikes for the day, which meant that Mads and I were alone for quite a bit of the way, which was lovely as we could enjoy the sounds of nature. We had considered renting bikes too, but the island is very small and the 12 km trail can be hiked in 4-5 hours so we felt it was unnecessary to do so. After all, you see much more by walking and it’s cheaper. Plus, there were literally crowds on the bicycle paths, so we definitely made the right choice!

Shortly after leaving Bäckviken, we turned off the road onto a path for hikers only. The silence was wonderful. This part actually turned out to be my favourite part of the trail as we had the most incredible view of the 50 meter high sandstone cliffs by the lighthouse and saw a ton of wildlife. Deer, rabbits and birds galore!

Unfortunately, the path only lasted 2,5 km and then joined onto the road again where hundreds of bikers passed by throughout the rest of the day. Mads and I were getting hungry by this point and counted on our next destination, the village of Tuna, to have a supermarket.

We hiked on while talking about what we were going to buy, and came to Kärlekstigen (“the path of love”), a beautiful tiny path through a sparse woodland, where we were alone again. It was only a short walk through but I really enjoyed it, especially because of the many fragrant flowers in the small forest.

On the other side of Kärlekstigen, we came to the village of Tuna, which is the biggest village on the island located right in its center. The village is home to Tycho Brahe’s two observatories, Stjerneborg and Uranienborg. Tycho Brahe was a pioneering astronomer  from the 16th century, known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations. He discovered a new star in the Cassiopeia constellation in 1572, which ultimately revolutionized astronomy as other astronomers at the time believed that the universe was unchangeable. His most significant effort was his realization that advances in astronomy required systematic observations every night with instruments of the greatest possible accuracy.

With this in mind, he built the two observatories on Ven, which were one of the world’s largest research centers at the time. After exploring the observatories, we headed to the only supermarket on the island, and then sat outside on a bench eating our lunch, before continuing southwest towards Kyrkbacken.

The walk took us along fields and large farms and down a steep hill until we got to the picturesque village. Kyrkbacken means “The Church Hill”, which refers to the St. Ibb Church located on a hill above the village.

With the view of the church and the incredibly beautiful coastline plus its quaint houses, Kyrkbacken quickly became my favourite village on the island.

We didn’t stop for long as we had one chance to catch the afternoon ferry back to Copenhagen. Our hike continued around the west side of Ven. This part took us past a beautiful yellow rapeseed field with a lighthouse to the tiny village of Mossen that surrounds Ven’s largest forest, which isn’t very large at all.

The trail continued down to the ocean and along the east coast to the village of Norreborg, where we decided to take a rest on the soft grass in the baking sun. We had realized that we were in good time, so it was nice to just enjoy the silence and amazing weather for a while.

The next part was the last leg of the hike, along the east coast past the camping place and the alpacas of Ven, to Haken Lighthouse and back to Bäckviken.

Although it was a beautiful coastal stretch, it was hard to enjoy as we were overtaken by hundreds of bicycles on the tiny path, so we had to stop constantly. I was really surprised by the amount of tourists on Ven, but then again it was a beautiful day and the island is easily accessible and well known because of the observatories.

When we got back to our starting point in Bäckviken, 12 km and five hours later, we still had an hour left until the ferry would depart.

We spent that time exploring the tiny village and relaxing in the sun, before getting in queue way before departure to secure our favourite seats on the sun deck! Back to Copenhagen we went, after a beautiful day of hiking around the entire island!

Travel info on Ven

HOW LONG DO I NEED? = Ven can be visited either on a day trip or with however many days you desire. It’s small enough so everything can be seen by foot in 5-6 hours, but sleeping there overnight would be less stressful and definitely a great experience.

GETTING THERE = There are frequent ferry departures from Copenhagen and Rungsted in Denmark and Landskrona, Råå and Helsingborg in Sweden. Read more here. Don’t forget to bring your passport if you’re travelling from Denmark!

GETTING AROUND = The best way to experience Ven is to hike the 12 km Skåneleden trail around the island. Most of the path is also accessible by bike, and busses run frequently between the villages.

EATING AND DRINKING = There’s a small supermarket in Tuna, which has all the basics plus a lot of vegan foods. Additionally, there are several cafés in the villages.

CURRENCY = Both Danish krone and Swedish krona are accepted on the island.

DON’T MISS = Tycho Brahe’s two observatories in Tuna, St. Ibb Church in Kyrkbacken, the alpacas between Norreborg and Bäckviken, the five lighthouses and Kärleksstigen near Tuna.