Ryomgård

Ryomgård is a Danish country town with a population of 2,743 (1 January 2025) located 29 kilometers north east of to the country’s second largest city Aarhus. As such Ryomgård is in part a pendler town to Aarhus.

Ryomgård lies in the middle of the peninsula, Djursland, protruding into the Kattegat Sea from another peninsula, Jutland, that extends up from northern Germany. It’s a 216 kilometer drive to the German border. From Ryomgård it’s a two and a half hour drive by car and ferry to the Danish capital Copenhagen on the island of Zealand.

Ryomgård is located in Syddjurs Municipality which covers the southern half of the Djursland-peninsula. Ryomgård lies 14 kilometers from the sea.

History

Before roads were common in Denmark prior to 1700 the place where Ryomgård lies was one of the few passageways over the swamp and lake divide that separated the northern part of Djursland from the southern part. There was a toll station for passage, close to the manor house, Gammel Ryomgård, that dates back to the 17th century.

Ryomgård came to life as a town in the late 1870s when a railway was established from Randers on mainland Jutland across the Djursland peninsula to the fishing- and seaport Grenå on the east coast of Djursland.

Ryomgård lay midway between Randers and Grenå by the railway. The development of Ryomgård was further consolidated when another rail line was built between Ryomgård and Århus, Denmark's second largest city 30 kilometers south east of Ryomgård. This was also in the 1870s.

Around 1900 Ryomgård was described as follows: "Ryom railway town with cooperative dairy, brickworks, grocery store, mill, guesthouse, railway, telegraph and poststation."

In 1911 another railway line from Ryomgård to Gjerrild in the north of Djursland was added, making Ryomgård a railway hub on Djursland.

Establishing a lower secondary school, Ryomgård Realskole, near the railway in 1913 contributed further to the growth of the town.

Geography and Climate

The climate in the region is temperate coastal, with an average summer temperature in July of 20 degrees Celsius in the day, and 12 degrees at night, and an average winter temperature in January with 5 degrees in the day and 1 degree at night (1961 – 1990) DMI The average precipitation is 722 millimeters per year, making Ryomgård as well as the rest of Denmark well suited for farming. Barley, wheat, canola, and in recent years corn, are common crops in the farmland surrounding Ryomgård.

The name "Ryomgård" comes from the Danish word ''Ryom'', which is one of several old words for clearing in a wood. Also today the town is close to a central forested area on Djursland, the Fjeld and Løvenholm woods.

Ryomgårds main street, Vestergade, is 17 meters above sea level. The town was founded above the north bank of a former sound that in the stone ages cut of north Djursland from the mainland making the northern part of Djursland an island. Newer parts of the town have been built on south facing hills up from to the former sound reaching an elevation above sea level of about 40 meters. At the top of the hills, where the land gets more flat, evened out by of ice sheets during the last ice age, 12.000 years ago, the most recent new housing is seen.

Demographics

The geographical region, Djursland, where Ryomgård is situated, has an average population density of 42 inhabitants per square km, as compared to 407 for neighboring England and 230 for neighboring Germany.Danmarks Statistik Although this is much more than in the other Scandinavian countries Norway, Sweden and Finland with extensive mountain ranges and a colder climate, it rarely gets crowded in the Djursland area, including along the 260 kilometer coastline of Djursland, where public access to all of the coastline is secured according to Danish law.

This contributes to a potential for coastal tourism in the region. There is a summer influx of tourists, mainly from the Scandinavian countries plus Germany and Holland. Often based on staying in summer rentals along the coast. Even though this is part of the overall economy of the Djursland area, Ryomgård is not significantly based on tourism, due to the relative inland location away from the coast.

Many Danes have a working knowledge of English and to some extent German - the two main foreign languages taught in Danish schools.

Traditionally Danes are Protestants with about 75 percent being members of the Protestant church, Folkekirken. In the Danish Wikipedia article about “Danskere” The Danes, it is stated that about 40 percent of Danes are non-believers, according to a survey. It is characteristic that only a minority of Danish Protestants are regular church goers.

Institutions

There are a number of indoor and outdoor public sports facilities in Ryomgård.

Public institutions in Ryomgård cover aspects such as elderly care, protected housing, kindergartens, maintenance of public infrastructure and more.

By the railway station in Ryomgård Djurslands Railway Museum is located describing Danish and local railway history over the last 150 years.

Transport

The Grenaa railway line between Aarhus and Grenaa passes through Ryomgård. After an electrification and renovation from 2016 to 2019, the railway reopened in 2019 with train connections from Ryomgård railway station to Aarhus and Grenaa every 30 minutes as opposed to 60 minutes before the renovation.

By car it takes about 25 minutes to reach the northern outskirts of Aarhus, driving on the Djursland Motorway two thirds of the way.

Aarhus Airport is 14 kilometers from Ryomgård, with several national flights daily to Copenhagen, as well as a number of international flights, including a Ryan Air connection to Stansted in England.

From the bus station in Ryomgård there are connections to neighboring towns including Randers, Hornslet, Rønde, Ebeltoft, Grenaa and Bønnerup as well as Aarhus.

Education

There is a public and a private primary school in Ryomgård. The private school, Ryomgård Realskole, on the main street, was founded in 1913 and has about 270 pupils in grades 1 to 10. The public School, Marienhofskolen, located at the top of one of the hills down to the main street, was founded in 1971, and has 400 pupils in grades 1 to 9.Skoleporten

Ryomgård has also got a Produktionsskole, a practically oriented school for young people who are on their way to finding an education or job.

The three towns, Rønde, 12 kilometers from Ryomgård, Randers, 34 kilometers from Ryomgård, and Grenaa 28 kilometers from Ryomgård, have high schools and vocational educations used by young people in Ryomgård, who can go to and from these towns by bus.

Young people in Ryomgård also go by bus or train to Aarhus to attend high school and other educations, as well as University.

Housing

The sixties and the seventies saw economic growth in Denmark, and a lot of single family homes with a characteristic one story design were built. This is also the case in Ryomgård, where the hills up from the main street became built up. The public school Marienhofskolen was also built in this period at the top of one of the hills.

Today a typical 130 square meter house with a 1500 square meter garden from the sixties or seventies that is well kept is priced in the range of 1.2 – 2 million kroner.Nybolig.dk - Ryomgård Such houses are within the price range of working or middle-class families where both adults work. (Both adults working full-time in a family is the norm in Denmark). Newly built houses typically cost between 2 – 3 million kroner in Ryomgård, according to a local real estate agent.

Along the main street in Ryomgård, houses built between the twenties and fifties can be seen.

Surroundings

Ryomgårds neighboring town 6 kilometers to the east, Pindstrup, has been a centre for peat moss production employing many people in the first half of the 19th century at Pindstrup Mosebrug. Now only the Pindstrup Mosebrug head quarteres are located in Pindstrup, with production facilities based on peat bogs located elsewhere in and outside Denmark. At the same Pindstrup-location a spinoff, Novopan, is a European manufacturer of particleboard for house building and furniture production based on 80 percent recycled wood.

8 kilometers east of Ryomgård lies Kolind