Pilgrimsrute København – Roskilde

At a Glance

• Start / Finish: Copenhagen-Kastrup airport (Københavns Lufthavn station) / Roskilde (Domkirke, Sankt Ibs Kirke)
• Length: 51.4 km
• Duration: 2 stages (Camino Ninja division), 2–3 days
• Elevation: ↗ 117 m / ↘ 117 m — the flattest route in the Danish network
• Highest point: 57 m at km 45.7 in the Hedeland near Vindinge
• Stages: 2 — Camino Ninja system on our waypoints; the operator cuts "Kastrup – Ishøj 22 km" and "Ishøj – Roskilde 28.5 km"
• Landscape: Amager and the airport fringe, Køge Bay with beach park, Copenhagen's suburbs, farmland around Torslunde and Reerslev, Hedeland nature park, Roskilde Fjord
• Operator: Foreningen af Danske Santiagopilgrimme (founded November 1999), trail maintenance by the Stigruppen. The name "Pilgrimsrute København – Roskilde" is Camino Ninja system; the start at the airport is the operator's logic
• Waymarking: scallop shell throughout, green triangles across Solhøj Fælled; muddy sections with an alternative trace
• Traces of St James: none on the route — the St James connection waits at the finish: Sankt Ibs Kirke Roskilde, Ib is James
• Accommodation: hotels and hostels at the airport and in Copenhagen, Ishøj Vandrerhjem, Danhostel Roskilde; no pilgrim hostel on the route
• Feeders and connection: train Malmö–Kastrup (Øresund Bridge closed on foot); in Roskilde onward on the Pilgrimsrute Vestsjælland, where the Pilgrimsrute Nordsjælland from Helsingør also ends
• Best time: April to October

Overview

This route begins at the baggage belt. The operator wanted it that way: its first stage is called "Kastrup – Ishøj", and Kastrup is Copenhagen's airport — the place where most people arrive who want to head south on the Danske Pilgrimsrute, and the station where the train from Malmö stops every twenty minutes, because the Øresund Bridge is closed to pedestrians. From the terminal it goes past the Tårnby Kirke, one of the oldest buildings in use in greater Copenhagen, down to Køge Bay, via Brøndby Strand and Vallensbæk, then into farmland: Torslunde with the church in which a priest named Jakobsen endowed the first Danish picture of a Lutheran service in 1561, Reerslev with the wall paintings of the Isefjord Master, the Hedeland, a gravel pit that became a landscape — and Roskilde, cathedral city since 1020, with the cathedral of the kings and the Sankt Ibs Kirke at the old harbour. Ib is Danish for James.

Frankly: the name is our Camino Ninja system, the operator names the pieces after pairs of places. On the 51 kilometres themselves there is no St James church, no shell in the ground, no pilgrim by name; the St James connection of this route lies at the finish, not on the way. The first half is suburbs, airport fringe and beach park, no wilderness, and there is no pilgrim hostel on the route — you sleep in a hostel. What there is instead: the route you can walk without first travelling anywhere, the Copenhagen city-centre branch that the society never laid out because this one replaces it, and at the end a St James church older than the cathedral next door. The route has no history. It has a railway station, and for a feeder that is the better equipment.

Other Names

The operator names this route after its stages: "Kastrup – Ishøj, 22 km" and "Ishøj – Roskilde, 28.5 km", in the network overview "København – Roskilde, 50 km" — exactly the designation our name Pilgrimsrute København – Roskilde picks up. Camino Ninja system is only the title and the bundling into one route; the start at the airport is the operator's logic, not our invention. On hiking portals the track runs as Den Danske Pilgrimsrute Østsjælland (E6), because the route lies on the European long-distance path E6, and the whole network of the Foreningen af Danske Santiagopilgrimme covers 985 kilometres in 22 stages from Helsingør to Rødby and Gedser.

Two names do not belong. There is no city-centre branch of the society through Copenhagen — from the Vor Frue Kirke or the Sankt Jakobs Kirke in Østerbro; if you have a buffer day, visit the Sankt Jakobs Kirke of 1878 with the St James relief above the portal, but it is not on the route. And the Roskildevej, the historic highway Copenhagen–Roskilde, is a street name, not a pilgrim route: the pilgrims do not take the road that bears their name but walk via Køge Bay, Vallensbæk and the Hedeland. Our 51.4 kilometres are the kilometrage of our route data, the operator reckons 50.5 — measuring method, not detour.

Ideal For – and Less So For

Ideal if you fly in and want to walk on the first day instead of ride: from the baggage belt to the first shell sign is minutes, and after two days you stand in Roskilde at the start of the Zealand route. Ideal if you come from Sweden — the train from Malmö stops at the starting point, every twenty minutes. Ideal as a trial run: 51.4 kilometres, 117 metres of ascent, every stage ends at a railway station, and Copenhagen is never more than half an hour away. And ideal if honesty does not bother you: this route does not pretend to be old. It takes you to where it gets old.

Frankly, though, it is not for you if you are looking for landscape: the first half is airport fringe, Amager, suburbs and the beach park of Køge Bay, tarmac and cycle path, and only beyond Vallensbæk does it become farmland. Not for you if you expect a pilgrim hostel — there is none on the route, you sleep in a hostel or hotel, the nearest hostel is in Ballerup on the neighbouring route. Not for you if you want St James on the way: he comes only in Roskilde. And not for you if you plan on shelters and tent — the corridor is densely populated, the supply thin; nights like that are planned beforehand, not on the runway.

Route & Landscape

Amager and Køge Bay: You start at Københavns Lufthavn station in Kastrup, walk through Tårnby past the Tårnby Kirke — fieldstone and chalk from the 12th century, wall paintings with the symbols of the four evangelists — and across Amager westwards to Køge Bay. At Brøndby Strand and Vallensbæk the route runs along the water, through the beach park with its lagoons and dykes, with a view across the bay to the south, where near Køge the holy Margrethe of Roskilde was buried on the beach in 1176. Vallensbæk is an S-train station and the cleanest stage boundary of the route.

Farmland and Hedeland: Beyond Tranegilde it becomes countryside: fields, church villages, field tracks — Torslunde with the church of around 1200 and its famous altar picture, Barfredshøj Huse, Reerslev with the wall paintings of the 1470s; across Solhøj Fælled green triangles mark the way instead of shells. Then the Hedeland: 15 square kilometres of former gravel pit, dug out from 1892, a nature park since 1977 with lakes, hills, amphitheatre, heritage railway and ski slope — here near Vindinge lies the highest point of the route at 57 metres. Via Vindinge you come down to Roskilde, to the fjord, to the cathedral and to the Sankt Ibs Kirke. Surface: cycle and footpaths, beach park dykes, field tracks, gravel in the Hedeland, plus tarmac in the suburbs; there is no measured share, but the first half is mostly paved.

Stages, Terrain & Difficulty

We divide the 51.4 kilometres into two stages — Camino Ninja system; the operator cuts at Ishøj (22 + 28.5 km), which does not lie on our waypoint chain, so we set the boundary at Vallensbæk, S-train station of the Køge Bay line. Every stage boundary is a waypoint of our route data, every kilometre figure the difference between two points, the total exactly the 51.4 kilometres of our route. If you want three shorter days, split additionally at Torslunde: 23.5 + 12.5 + 15.4.

1. Kastrup (airport) – Vallensbæk (23.5 km) — from the terminal through Tårnby and across Amager to Køge Bay, Brøndby Strand, beach park; finish at the S-train.
2. Vallensbæk – Roskilde (27.9 km) — Tranegilde, Torslunde Kirke, Barfredshøj Huse, Reerslev Kirke, Hedeland with the highest point (57 m), Vindinge, arrival at the cathedral and the Sankt Ibs Kirke.

Technically the route is no challenge: 117 metres of ascent over 51 kilometres, footpaths, dykes, field tracks, gravel. What is demanding is something else: the tarmac of the first half, the 28 kilometres of the second day, and the fact that nowhere on this route do you fall into a hostel — accommodation here means hostel or hotel, booked beforehand. Muddy sections have designated alternative traces. Light shoes for tarmac, rain layer, GPX, and the calm to take the first day as arriving, not as a hike.

The Route That Begins at the Baggage Belt

There are routes that begin at a cathedral, and routes that begin at a spring. This one begins at a railway station under an airport, and that is no accident but the operator's logic: the Foreningen af Danske Santiagopilgrimme named its first stage "Kastrup – Ishøj" because Kastrup is the place where Scandinavia arrives. At Københavns Lufthavn station the trains from Malmö stop every twenty minutes, those from Helsingør and Lund, the intercities to Gothenburg and the X 2000 to Stockholm — and the Øresund Bridge, opened on 1 July 2000, 7,845 metres of bridge plus four kilometres of tunnel, is closed to pedestrians and cyclists; a cycle path was discussed and rejected. If you want to walk from Sweden to Santiago, you ride across the water here and walk from the platform. The society never laid out a city-centre branch through Copenhagen, no Vor Frue Kirke, no Sankt Jakobs Kirke as a start — this route is the Copenhagen access, and it begins where Copenhagen begins for arrivals. We have left it that way.

What the route has on the way is not St James, but the story of why there was no longer one in Denmark. In Torslunde, kilometre 36, stands a church of around 1200 with a font of Scanian sandstone and a crucifix from before 1250 — and with the Alterbordsforside of 1561, the earliest Danish depiction of the three central Lutheran acts: baptism, communion, sermon. The donor inscription reads "Denne tavle lod Jens (Hans) Jakobsen, Præst til denne Kirke, pryde Anno Domini 1561". In 1536 the Reformation had abolished pilgrimage; 25 years later a priest on this route had painted on wood what now counted instead. That the man was called Jakobsen is a coincidence, and we call it that — but a St James route that passes its own farewell picture has more to tell than some with a shell. The original went to the National Museum in 1874, since 1998 a copy hangs in the church. Five kilometres on, the vaults of Reerslev show the Bible of the 1470s, painted by the Isefjord Master: to the east the life of Jesus, to the west the Passion, instruction for people who could not read. And then the Hedeland: in 1892 Peter Madsen began digging gravel here, in 1899 more than 6,000 railway wagons a year left the pit, in 1977 it became a nature park with 60 kilometres of paths. The villages in it — Vindinge, Reerslev — are older than Roskilde cathedral; the landscape around them is younger than the pilgrim society. That is an honest route: it shows you what Denmark made of its earth before it takes you to what Denmark made of its faith.

Because at the finish St James does wait. The Sankt Ibs Kirke of Roskilde stands on a wooden church of around 1000, was built of travertine from 1100 to 1150, is first documented in 1291 and has separate entrances for women and men and a Christ Pantocrator of around 1200 on the wall — Ib is the Danish short form of Jakob, and the mappers of 2007 named exactly this church as evidence of the old pilgrim route. In 1578 its demolition was ordered, the parish prevented it; in 1808 wounded Spanish soldiers of the Napoleonic Wars lay in it — a coincidence, but one that can be told at the end of a St James route. Next to it the cathedral, walled from 1170 around the old travertine building so that services could continue, one of the earliest brick Gothic buildings in Scandinavia, burial place of the kings, World Heritage since 1995. And the woman for whom Roskilde was a pilgrimage destination even before the cathedral: Margrethe of Roskilde, murdered in 1176 by her husband Herlog in Ølsemagle on the same Køge Bay you walked along on the first day, buried on the beach as a supposed suicide, until miracles were reported and Bishop Absalon transferred her to the Vor Frue Kloster, where the nuns received a third of the pilgrim income. Never canonised, venerated locally, the only saint born in Denmark within today's borders. A route that begins at the baggage belt ends with her. A feeder need not be longer than that.

Highlights Along the Way

• Københavns Lufthavn station, Kastrup — the start: trains from Malmö every 20 minutes, from Helsingør and Lund, Metro M2 into the city; the place where Scandinavia arrives.
• Tårnby Kirke — fieldstone and chalk from the first half of the 12th century, unusually large for a village church; 14th-century wall paintings with the symbols of the four evangelists; restored 1973–77 by Johannes Exner.
• Køge Bugt Strandpark — the artificial beach and lagoon landscape between Brøndby Strand and Vallensbæk; on the horizon Køge and Ølsemagle.
• Vallensbæk — S-train station of the Køge Bay line and stage boundary.
• Torslunde Kirke — around 1200, font of Scanian sandstone, crucifix before 1250; Alterbordsforside of 1561, the earliest Danish picture of baptism, communion and sermon, endowed by priest Jakobsen; copy since 1998, original in the National Museum.
• Reerslev Kirke — wall paintings by the Isefjord Master from the 1470s: to the east the life of Jesus, to the west the Passion.
• Hedeland — 15 km² former gravel pit (from 1892), nature park since 1977 with 60 km of paths, amphitheatre, heritage railway and ski slope; highest point of the route (57 m) near Vindinge.
• Roskilde Domkirke — brick Gothic from 1170, built around the old cathedral, royal burial place, UNESCO World Heritage since 1995, over 165,000 visitors a year.
• Sankt Ibs Kirke, Roskilde — St James church at the old harbour, stone building 1100–1150, documented 1291, Christ Pantocrator around 1200; here the route ends.
• Sankt Jørgensbjerg Kirke, Roskilde — Denmark's oldest surviving stone building (around 1080), originally dedicated to the seafarers' patron Clement.
• Vor Frue Kirke, Roskilde — on the site of the convent to which Absalon transferred the bones of Margrethe of Roskilde in 1176.
• Sankt Jakobs Kirke, Copenhagen-Østerbro — Ludvig Fenger's brick church of 1878 with St James relief above the portal; not on the route, but worth a buffer day.

How Pilgrims Reach This Route

This route is itself the access — and it has two doors. The first is the airport: if you fly to Copenhagen, you walk from the terminal to Københavns Lufthavn station and stand at the start. The second is the train from Sweden: the Øresund Bridge has been closed to pedestrians and cyclists since its opening on 1 July 2000, so you ride from Malmö to Kastrup in around twenty minutes — the trains stop at the starting point, every twenty minutes, plus intercities from Gothenburg and Kalmar and the X 2000 from Stockholm. From Skåne you come on the Øresundståg via Lund and Malmö. The society itself understands its route as the one that leads "fra Vadstena i Sverige til Santiago de Compostela"; the mappers of 2007 justified the north–south axis through Zealand by the fact that pilgrims from Sweden and Norway took Denmark as the shortest way south, with Vadstena and Nidaros as Nordic reference destinations.

If you want the classic beginning, take the other access: in 60 to 75 minutes the Øresundstog takes you from the airport to Helsingør, where the Pilgrimsrute Nordsjælland begins at the shell outside the station and leads via Gurre, Esrum and Ballerup also to Roskilde — 104.4 kilometres with the densest St James trail in Denmark. Both accesses meet at the cathedral. You get your pilgrim passport from the society, which has sold it exclusively in Denmark since 1999, according to Nordjysk Pilgrimsforening 25 DKK for members and 50 DKK plus postage for non-members; for the Danish route you do not need it, for Spain you do.

Continuing the Pilgrimage?

In Roskilde this route does not end, it is handed over. At the cathedral the Pilgrimsrute Vestsjælland begins, 119.9 kilometres via Ringsted, the Tystrup-Bavelse basin near Sorø and Slagelse to Korsør; in Ringsted the Pilgrimsrute Sydsjælland – Lolland-Falster branches off south, via Næstved, Vordingborg and Maribo to the ferry in Rødbyhavn. That is the switch of the Danish network: west or south.

Westwards you take the train across the Storebælt in Korsør — the bridge is closed on foot — and walk the Pilgrimsrute Fyn from Nyborg via Odense and Middelfart to Vejen, where the Hærvejen leads over the Jutland ridge to Padborg and the Via Jutlandica takes over. Southwards you cross from Rødbyhavn to Puttgarden and stand at the start of the Via Scandinavica to Lübeck. Both strands find their way into the European network via the Via Baltica; in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port the Camino Francés begins. From the baggage belt to the apostle's tomb is around 3,250 kilometres. The first 51.4 you will then have behind you.

Preparation & Practicalities

Best time: April to October — the route is low-lying, close to the city and walkable out of season too, because you sleep in hotels and hostels anyway. Wind on Køge Bay, otherwise mild. Waymarking and navigation: scallop shell throughout, across Solhøj Fælled green triangles instead of shells; some spots get muddy and have designated alternative traces. Signage in Denmark requires permits and is therefore sparser than in Spain; download the operator's GPX track and plan stages and lodgings most easily directly in the Camino Ninja app. Pilgrim passport: not needed for Denmark, needed for Spain; credencial from the society (exclusive right since 1999) or your own St James society; stamps in churches, in the Roskilde tourist office and in the cathedral. Language: Danish, English everywhere, Swedish on the platform. Water: at churches and cemeteries, in the suburbs in every shop.

Accommodation: There is no pilgrim hostel on this route — the nearest is the Albergue Ballerup on the Nordsjælland route. For the first night, hotels and hostels at the airport or in Copenhagen suggest themselves (the route begins at the station anyway), at the stage boundary the Ishøj Vandrerhjem or lodgings in Vallensbæk and Ishøj, at the finish the Danhostel Roskilde by the Viking Ship Museum, B&Bs and hotels. Shelters are thin on the ground in the densely populated corridor; free overnight stays are permitted in Denmark on designated sites, but hardly practical here. Packing list: light shoes for tarmac, rain layer, offline maps, power bank; no sleeping bag needed.

What the Route Costs

You pay in Danish kroner, and frankly this is the most expensive section of the Danish network per kilometre — capital region, no hostel, hotels instead of shelters. The figures are providers' figures and general Danish orders of magnitude (as of September 2026). Train Malmö–Kastrup at the Swedish-Danish joint fare; Roskilde–København 22 minutes, regional fare. Hostel bed in greater Copenhagen 250–400 DKK (34–54 €), Danhostel Roskilde and Ishøj Vandrerhjem in a room from about 600 DKK (80 €), hotel at the airport and in Roskilde 900–1,500 DKK (121–201 €) for two. Admission: churches free; Roskilde Domkirke and Viking Ship Museum charge; Hedeland free.

Realistic daily budget: 350–500 DKK (47–67 €) frugal with hostel bed and self-catering; 600–900 DKK (80–121 €) mid-range with B&B or Danhostel room and a warm meal; 1,000–1,600 DKK (134–214 €) comfortable with hotels at the airport and in Roskilde. For two stages that is roughly 700–1,000 DKK (94–134 €) frugal on the ground, plus pilgrim passport and travel. Two ways to save: spend the first night not at the airport but in a Copenhagen hostel by Metro — the route begins at the station, and you ride back there in minutes in the morning — and walk the second stage as a long day instead of sleeping in Ishøj.

Getting There

To the start (Kastrup): The start is Københavns Lufthavn station under Terminal 3. From Sweden on the Øresundståg or train from Malmö (around 20 minutes, every 20 minutes), Lund, Gothenburg or Stockholm; from Copenhagen on Metro M2 (Lufthavnen station) or the regional train every ten minutes; from Germany via Hamburg–Copenhagen and on to the airport.

On the way and from the finish (Roskilde): Tårnby has a station on the Øresund line, Brøndby Strand and Vallensbæk lie on the S-train line of Køge Bay, Torslunde and Reerslev are connected by bus to Taastrup and Roskilde. Roskilde has over 50 trains a day to Copenhagen, 22 minutes, and long-distance services to Odense, Aarhus and via Fredericia to Hamburg. Natural dividing point: Vallensbæk — bay 23.5 kilometres, countryside 27.9.

• Rail Denmark: dsb.dk — Kastrup–Malmö, Roskilde–København, long-distance
• S-train, Metro, bus capital region: dinoffentligetransport.dk — Tårnby, Brøndby Strand, Vallensbæk, Torslunde, Reerslev
• Rail from Sweden: skanetrafiken.se — Øresundståg Malmö/Lund–Kastrup
• Rail from Germany: bahn.de — Hamburg–Copenhagen
• Operator, stages, GPS, pilgrim passport: santiagopilgrimme.dk — Foreningen af Danske Santiagopilgrimme
• Accommodation at the finish: roskildedanhostel.dk — Danhostel Roskilde by the Viking Ship Museum
• Nature park: hedeland.dk — Hedeland, paths and history