Routes

Planner

Features

Updates

App

Get the App

Routes

Hiking trails & Routes

Denmark

Southern Denmark

Sønderborg

Rinkenæs Lighthouse – Gendarmstien loop from Gråsten

Routes

Hiking trails & Routes

Denmark

Southern Denmark

Sønderborg

Rinkenæs Lighthouse – Gendarmstien loop from Gråsten

Moderate

5.0

(7)

hikers

Rinkenæs Lighthouse – Gendarmstien loop from Gråsten

02:39

10.5km

20m

Hiking

Moderate hike. Good fitness required. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels. The starting point of the route is accessible with public transport.

Last updated: May 15, 2026

Waypoints

Start point

Bus stop

Get Directions

1.37 km

Root Path on the Baltic Sea Shore

Highlight • Trail

3.01 km

Rinkenæs Lighthouse

Highlight • Monument

The Rinkenæs Lighthouse (lower light) was built in 1896.

Tower height: 8.50 m
Light height: 10 m

The tower is made of sheet steel and was erected on a concrete foundation. The dome-shaped lantern roof was made of two-millimeter-thick copper sheet.
Initially, a spirit mantle burner served as the light source. The identification was generated by a clockwork mechanism. After the referendum in Schleswig, the lighthouse was handed over to the Danish administration in July 1920. In 1921, the spirit mantle burner was replaced with an acetone gas lamp. In 1976, the white lighthouse with a red band and red lantern roof was electrified, and an incandescent lamp was installed as the light source. The lighthouse also functions as a leading light and a sector light.

Source (with further information and construction drawings):
deutsche-leuchtfeuer.de/ausland/rinkenis-richtfeuer.html

The upper light (the rear tower) is located approximately 1 km further inland.

Rinkenæs Lighthouse is not accessible.

Translated by Google •

Tip by

3.03 km

Lighthouse on the Flensburg Fjord

Highlight • Monument

A very nice place right on the water. A few hundred meters before (coming from Germany), there is a small designated parking - so it is ideal as a start or finish point of stages 😊

Translated by Google •

Tip by

3.37 km

Gendarmstien Shelter at Sønderhav-Rendbjerg

Highlight • Mountain Hut

The shelter is allright, but is sitet unatractive almost directly on the path, with lots of people walking by. No view to anything but a watertreading plant behind some bushes. No water an no toilet nearby. The least attractive shelter on the Gendarmsti. But as said, its ok when you are tired and you just want a place to sleep.

Tip by

4.92 km

Helligsø Nature Reserve

Highlight • Lake

South of Sandager lies the small Helligsø. In 1990, the pump that had drained the area for agriculture for around 50 years was turned off, the 200 m long dike was removed and an inlet to the Flensburg Fjord was dug. This means that the salt water of the fjord now mixes with the groundwater of the lake. The result is the Helligsø, a saltwater lake that is around 3 hectares in size at normal water levels, but can be as large as 7.5 hectares at high water levels. Since the water level in the Baltic Sea and the fjord also changes (albeit lower in normal cases), 2/3 of the lake flows into the fjord at every tide. The groundwater of the lake can therefore always be replenished, so that there is always fresh and nutrient-rich water available. Plants and water birds typical of saltwater live on and in the Helligsø.
Saltwater-typical plants and water birds live on and in the Helligsø. From the bridge that crosses the lake's outlet, you can enjoy a small view of the lake.

Otherwise, the area is a bird sanctuary and should not be entered.

Translated by Google •

Tip by

5.25 km

View of Holnis and Holnis Cliff

Highlight • Viewpoint

Directly on the beach is a bank and invites you to linger. From this delightful patch of earth you have a great view of the peninsula Holnis and the Holnis cliff. Here is the narrowest point of the fjord and the Fördeufer on the German side is close enough to touch. Fairway barrels show the way for shipping - in front of Holnis are sands that are fairly flat. On the beach countless round washed bricks in yellow and red bear witness to the once flourishing brick production. Monks brought brickmaking and masonry to Denmark, and in the previous centuries a number of brickworks were built on Broagerland and around Nybøl Nor, and the area became the hub of the brick industry in Northern Europe. The bricks were made by the workers by hand in the so-called hand-drawing process. On a working day, a worker managed about 6,000 bricks. Often the whole family was busy in the brickworks. The work was not safe. You could burn yourself at the stove, fall into the clay pit or fall into the water while loading or unloading the ships and drown. The main work of the women and children was to turn over the stones that were left to dry in the open air. Often the brickworks were only in operation from April to October, since in the winter no clay could be dug in the frost. By 1890 brick production was at its peak and there were 39 brickworks. At Stranderød and Brændstoft are the ruins of two brickworks. Here is also a part of Gendarmstien occupied with red and yellow bricks.
As the ice of the last ice age began to melt, it left huge ice lumps where the ice edge was. Eisseen were formed around these lumps of ice, in whose still water very fine and stone-free clay sediments were deposited. This clay has been the foundation of the flourishing brick industry on the Flensburg Fjord for centuries. Also on the peninsula Holnis there was a brickyard. There is only the factory villa, the brickyard has disappeared. Not so in Egernsund and Nybøl Nor. Egernsunder bricks are known all over the world today.

Translated by Google •

Tip by

5.53 km