Kustvägen Byrum - Äleklinta, Öland's beautiful west coast

Writer: Helena Bergström

Updated: October 2026 | The coastal road Byrum–Äleklinta runs along Öland's beautiful west coast. We started in Byxelkrok in the morning and then drove slowly south, along cliffs, beaches and ravines. A fantastically beautiful road – and one of the stretches on Öland that made the strongest impression on us.

Kustvägen Byrum - Äleklinta

Kustvägen Byrum - Äleklinta is an old-fashioned road that takes you past prehistoric memories, old harbours, remains of quarrying and Öland's only preserved wind-powered rogue mill, which is now a listed building.

The coastal road Byrum - Äleklinta starts in Byrum on north-western Öland and ends in Äleklinta, 4 kilometres to the south. The map below shows Byrum.

Starting in Byxelkrok

We started our day's stage in Byxelkrok, about 12 kilometers north of Byrum. Here we had spent the night at Tokenäs camping, a simple campsite with a nice location near the sea. We liked the environment, the fresh service building and the friendly service.

Across the road from the campsite is the sea. We watched the little lighthouse while the sun was setting in the sea. Incredibly beautiful!

It also looked really nice when we looked towards the beach in Byxelkrok.

Towards the coastal road Byrum - Äleklinta

The next day it was time to roll south! We drove down to the coast already after Byxelkrok, which means that we came down on the coastal road a little before the stretch Byrum - Äleklinta. But even this stretch was fantastic, with low vegetation, colourful flowers, rocks and intense blue sea.

To continue south, you have to leave the sea for a little while, and for us it was green roads straight through the forest. Then we saw a sign about Skäftekärr archaeological open-air museum ...

Skäftekärr Archaeological Open Air Museum

On the way we saw a sign for Skäftekärr and turned in. Here is a reconstructed Iron Age farm in an environment with ancient remains from the Iron Age. When we got there, the business was closed, but we were still able to look at the environment from the outside and think about what life might have been like here once upon a time.

The beach in Byrum-Sandvik

When we drove down to the sea again, we quickly came to the beach Byrum-Sandvik. What a fantastic beach! The sand is fine-grained and the sea sparkles in green-blue. There weren't too many people here either, even though it was glorious summer weather.

The caterpillars in Byrum

There is another reason to visit Byrum and that is the raukar. This is Öland's most famous rauk area, with large stone pillars that have been formed over millions of years. The area at Byrum is also rich in fossils. A fantastically beautiful and very special area!

Animals and nature along the coastal path Byrum - Äleklinta

Kustvägen Byrum - Äleklinta offers wonderful nature in the form of colourful flowers and beautiful rock formations. You will also encounter some animals, especially cows.

If I were a cow, I would probably wish to live on Öland. How nice they seem to have it here, among all the vegetation and with a view of the sea.

Quarries and earthworks

The stone industry on Öland has medieval origins, centred on Horn on the west coast of Öland. When travelling here you can see many traces of older and younger quarries.

At Jordhamn is Öland's only preserved wind-powered scouring mill, which was used to grind limestone. Previously, the work was done using a so-called scouring walk, where horses or oxen walked around and drove the grindstones. It must have been both heavy and time-consuming work.

We also drove past large areas with small "stone towers". The whole coastline is very special here, and you realise that large areas were used in the stone industry.

Restaurant Sandvik's mill

After a long hot motorhome trip along undeveloped coastal roads, we were very hungry for an ice cream. When we saw the Sandvik Mill restaurant, we stopped immediately. We had an ice cream here and it was nice, but afterwards we saw that we could also have continued down to the harbour where there was both a fish smokehouse and Italian ice cream.

Apple tree and snakeweed camel vine

At Ormöga, the road trip took on an unexpectedly exotic twist when we suddenly spotted camels. The camel ranch wasn't open when we passed, but we thought it was a bit of fun just to spy on the camels from the road.

See more on Öland

• Around Öland by car or campervan
• Things to do on Öland
• Things to do in Borgholm
• Solliden Castle and Garden
• Borgholm Castle