diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
index d75f61d8b3..bc8779b26f 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant.rs
@@ -2926,7 +2926,7 @@ impl Tenant {
     /// - after initialization completes, tar up the temp dir and upload it to S3.
     ///
     /// The caller is responsible for activating the returned timeline.
-    async fn bootstrap_timeline(
+    pub(crate) async fn bootstrap_timeline(
         &self,
         timeline_id: TimelineId,
         pg_version: u32,
diff --git a/pageserver/src/walingest.rs b/pageserver/src/walingest.rs
index 23367928d3..a9173b41e9 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/walingest.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/walingest.rs
@@ -2079,4 +2079,88 @@ mod tests {
 
         Ok(())
     }
+
+    /// Replay a wal segment file taken directly from safekeepers.
+    ///
+    /// This test is useful for benchmarking since it allows us to profile only
+    /// the walingest code in a single-threaded executor, and iterate more quickly
+    /// without waiting for unrelated steps.
+    #[tokio::test]
+    async fn test_ingest_real_wal() {
+        use crate::tenant::harness::*;
+        use postgres_ffi::waldecoder::WalStreamDecoder;
+        use postgres_ffi::WAL_SEGMENT_SIZE;
+
+        // Define test data path and constants.
+        //
+        // Steps to reconstruct the data, if needed:
+        // 1. Run the pgbench python test
+        // 2. Take the first wal segment file from safekeeper
+        // 3. Compress it using `zstd --long input_file`
+        // 4. Copy initdb.tar.zst from local_fs_remote_storage
+        // 5. Grep sk logs for "restart decoder" to get startpoint
+        // 6. Run just the decoder from this test to get the endpoint.
+        //    It's the last LSN the decoder will output.
+        let pg_version = 15; // The test data was generated by pg15
+        let path = "test_data/sk_wal_segment_from_pgbench";
+        let wal_segment_path = format!("{path}/000000010000000000000001.zst");
+        let startpoint = Lsn::from_hex("14AEC08").unwrap();
+        let endpoint = Lsn::from_hex("1FFFF98").unwrap();
+
+        // Bootstrap a real timeline. We can't use create_test_timeline because
+        // it doesn't create a real checkpoint, and Walingest::new tries to parse
+        // the garbage data.
+        //
+        // TODO use the initdb.tar.zst file stored with the test data to avoid
+        //      problems with inconsistent initdb results after pg minor version bumps.
+        let (tenant, ctx) = TenantHarness::create("test_ingest_real_wal")
+            .unwrap()
+            .load()
+            .await;
+        let tline = tenant
+            .bootstrap_timeline(TIMELINE_ID, pg_version, &ctx)
+            .await
+            .unwrap();
+
+        // We fully read and decompress this into memory before decoding
+        // to get a more accurate perf profile of the decoder.
+        let bytes = {
+            use async_compression::tokio::bufread::ZstdDecoder;
+            let file = tokio::fs::File::open(wal_segment_path).await.unwrap();
+            let reader = tokio::io::BufReader::new(file);
+            let decoder = ZstdDecoder::new(reader);
+            let mut reader = tokio::io::BufReader::new(decoder);
+            let mut buffer = Vec::new();
+            tokio::io::copy_buf(&mut reader, &mut buffer).await.unwrap();
+            buffer
+        };
+
+        // TODO start a profiler too
+        let started_at = std::time::Instant::now();
+
+        // Initialize walingest
+        let xlogoff: usize = startpoint.segment_offset(WAL_SEGMENT_SIZE);
+        let mut decoder = WalStreamDecoder::new(startpoint, pg_version);
+        let mut walingest = WalIngest::new(tline.as_ref(), startpoint, &ctx)
+            .await
+            .unwrap();
+        let mut modification = tline.begin_modification(endpoint);
+        let mut decoded = DecodedWALRecord::default();
+        println!("decoding {} bytes", bytes.len() - xlogoff);
+
+        // Decode and ingest wal. We process the wal in chunks because
+        // that's what happens when we get bytes from safekeepers.
+        for chunk in bytes[xlogoff..].chunks(50) {
+            decoder.feed_bytes(chunk);
+            while let Some((lsn, recdata)) = decoder.poll_decode().unwrap() {
+                walingest
+                    .ingest_record(recdata, lsn, &mut modification, &mut decoded, &ctx)
+                    .await
+                    .unwrap();
+            }
+        }
+
+        let duration = started_at.elapsed();
+        println!("done in {:?}", duration);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/pageserver/src/walredo.rs b/pageserver/src/walredo.rs
index 5d8cc0e181..4e684dec2d 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/walredo.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/walredo.rs
@@ -1182,7 +1182,7 @@ mod tests {
 
     #[tokio::test]
     async fn short_v14_redo() {
-        let expected = std::fs::read("fixtures/short_v14_redo.page").unwrap();
+        let expected = std::fs::read("test_data/short_v14_redo.page").unwrap();
 
         let h = RedoHarness::new().unwrap();
 
diff --git a/pageserver/fixtures/short_v14_redo.page b/pageserver/test_data/short_v14_redo.page
similarity index 100%
rename from pageserver/fixtures/short_v14_redo.page
rename to pageserver/test_data/short_v14_redo.page
diff --git a/pageserver/test_data/sk_wal_segment_from_pgbench/000000010000000000000001.zst b/pageserver/test_data/sk_wal_segment_from_pgbench/000000010000000000000001.zst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3c478e7827
Binary files /dev/null and b/pageserver/test_data/sk_wal_segment_from_pgbench/000000010000000000000001.zst differ
diff --git a/pageserver/test_data/sk_wal_segment_from_pgbench/initdb.tar.zst b/pageserver/test_data/sk_wal_segment_from_pgbench/initdb.tar.zst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..17e9c7ea08
Binary files /dev/null and b/pageserver/test_data/sk_wal_segment_from_pgbench/initdb.tar.zst differ