How to make a fairytale: take an island endowed with 123 jaw-dropping castles and awe-inspiring manor houses, steeped in medieval history.

Add a healthy dose of imagination and it is easy to understand why Denmark’s island of Fyn (pronounced Feun) inspired Hans Christian Andersen as he grew up here more than 200 years ago.

The central island is a direct train journey from Copenhagen, over Europe’s tallest suspension bridge.

The 1170 Nyborg Castle stands in the country’s medieval capital. Only one arm of the original building still remains, where banquets were held in the great hall.

The castle, which is bidding for a place on the Unesco World Heritage List with a scheme to rebuild lost sections of the fortress, holds lavish feasts four times a year.

All food is created on the island. The inspired King’s Pantry scheme sees local producers recreate the foods and drinks medieval kings and queens would have enjoyed – well, some of them.

“They’re not all brewed in a medieval fashion because it does not taste nice,” explains Ørbæk Microbrewery’s full- of-character tour guide John Østergaard.

As well as a full history of the brewery, a history of the origins of beer – like every man’s temptation, it was an accidental creation of woman, apparently – a tour around its modest buildings and, of course, a tasting of the vast array of beers, spirits and soft drinks produced there, John’s hospitality is pickled with light conversation and jokes.

The list of castles to admire appears endless. Another stunning fortress seems to emerge around every twist and turn of the road, including the Renaissance Holckenhavn Castle, with its charming church carved from wood, which hosts conferences, meetings and concerts.

Picturesque Broholm Castle, with its extensive grounds, Stone Age museum and recently restored restaurant, offers a place to lay your head like the upper classes in bygone centuries.

No two rooms are identical, but each offers the same feeling of stepping back in time as your limbs sink into the mattress of the lavish beds in rooms where aristocrats once resided.

Take a ferry from Svendborg around the surrounding waters, known to be full of a population of porpoises, to hop between the islands and Valdemars Castle, the home of Danish celebrity Caroline Fleming. Her ancestor Niels Iuel was handed the building perched on the edge of the island of Tåsinge as payment for sinking so many Swedish vessels during wars between the countries in the 1660s.

The building is available to hire for parties – but it is just as fun touring the building, nosing at the family’s photographs left out on display, and imagining descending the stairs in an extravagant ball gown.

Back on the mainland, family-friendly castle Egeskov offers the chance to get lost in a maze, battle like a modern knight on a Segway or explore the treetops in the grounds of the Renaissance fortress.

The award-winning 40 acres of gardens feature hedges that are nearly 300 years old, a kitchen garden, several mazes and a resting garden in which you can sink to the depths of giant hammocks, the world disappearing behind the canvas sides.

Explore the rooms inside the castle, which include suits of armour and Titania’s Palace, a doll’s house with 3,000 unique pieces and which took 15 years to complete.

But the heart of Fyn’s fairytale lies with one of the world’s most translated authors. The genius mind behind The Princess And The Pea, The Little Mermaid and The Emperor’s New Clothes, Hans Christian Andersen, was born and grew up in the capital Odense.

This year the first annual festival in his name paid tribute to the 150-odd tales he penned.

Festival director Peter Bøgholm says, “If you have one big cultural person in your society you’re very lucky.

“There’s Picasso, Mozart, Shakespeare and Hans Christian Andersen.

“In the festival we look at the space and universe of his art.”

The translation of his methods of work paves the way for stunning displays, in one exhibition morphing the stark frontage of the town hall into a breathtaking animation which brought the structure alive.

The man who immersed himself in the world around him and turned his wonders into tales is remembered throughout the town.

Children can dress up and play out his tales at the vibrant Tinderbox, visit his childhood home and the museum that explores his life, or visit the river and the stone where his impoverished mother washed the clothes of the upper classes.

An unassuming building opposite Andersen’s childhood home hosts one of Odense’s finest restaurants.

Like many of the best restaurants on Fyn, the chefs are riding high on the wave of the island’s reinvigorated embrace of its local producers.

Nestled in the fairytale quarter, gourmet restaurant Under Lindetræet is formed from four homes dating back as far as 1771.

In Svendborg, English-born chef Jeff Scott Foster named Restaurant 5 after the island’s postcode – where he strives to source almost all of his ingredients.

And Lieffroys, on the outskirts of Nyborg looking out across the water to the island of Zealand and the home of Denmark’s capital city, father and son Jean Louis and Patrick Leiffroy buy only from people they know.

Each chef’s talents in the kitchen with the quality local products creates tastebud- tantalising fuel for visitors to continue to create and explore their real-life fairytale.

  • Direct flights to Copenhagen from Gatwick Airport take about two hours with easyJet or Norwegian Air. Trains from the airport go direct to Nyborg and Odense.
  • Stay at Broholm Castle: www.broholm.dk/GB.aspx
  • Stay in Svendborg: christiansminde.dk/en
  • For more information visit www.visitfyn.com