Ebeltoft Old Town

Ebeltoft escaped the nineteenth-century prosperity that rebuilt most Danish market towns, and the result is an old centre of crooked cobbled lanes, leaning half-timbered houses and low tiled roofs that is among the best preserved in the country. Its emblem is the old town hall of 1789, a very small half-timbered building on the main street that claims to be one of the smallest in Denmark and now houses a museum, with a night watchman making rounds in summer as a piece of theatre the town takes seriously. Down at the harbour lies the frigate Jylland, and the Glass Museum occupies a converted customs house, holding an international collection of studio glass with a hot shop where glassblowers work.

What you actually see

• The 1789 town hall - a tiny half-timbered building on the main street.
• Crooked cobbled lanes - the least-altered market town centre in Denmark.
• The Glass Museum - international studio glass with a working hot shop.
• The summer night watchman - rounds through the old town on summer evenings.

When to go

May to September. Half a day for the old town and one museum. Summer evenings for the night watchman rounds. Winter is quiet with limited opening.

Honest expectations

It is a small town centre that is quickly walked. Summer weekends and the ferry arrivals crowd the lanes. The night watchman rounds are a performance and feel like it. Many businesses close from October.

Nearby

The frigate Jylland is at the harbour; Mols Bjerge National Park lies west.