Elspeetsche Heide

North of Elspeet the woods open onto the Elspeetsche Heide, a heathland of 768 hectares owned by the municipality of Nunspeet. Together with the smaller Westeindsche Heide it forms one continuous stretch of open heath, and it is part of the Veluwe Natura 2000 area, the largest protected nature zone in the Netherlands. The provincial road N310 between Elspeet and Nunspeet cuts across it.

The landscape is man-made. The area was originally forest, and after the trees were cleared, farmers from Elspeet and neighbouring villages grazed sheep here for centuries. The sheep kept trees from returning and their dung, mixed with cut heath sods, was used to fertilise the fields, a system that lasted until the Second World War. When artificial fertiliser reduced the need for heath in the early twentieth century, many Dutch heaths were planted with pine, but this one stayed open.

The twentieth century left its own marks. Airfields were planned on the heath in the 1930s but never built. During the Second World War the German occupiers started work on a runway here, and local farmers and resistance members ploughed deep furrows across it so it could not be used. After the war the Ministry of Defence used the land as a training ground, with a tank track several kilometres long for cavalry training. The army gave up the area in 1995, and sheep flocks once again graze the heath to keep it open.

There is more to find on foot. In the eastern part, about a kilometre south-west of Vierhouten, stands a replica of a half-excavated Neolithic burial mound that shows how such a mound is built up. The Liesberg, a rise of around 41 metres in the western part, is one of the few bumps in the otherwise level heath. On the edge of the Stakenberg woods stands a 20-metre lookout tower with about 90 steps; it opened in May 2016 in place of an older fire-watch tower from the 1920s and gives a wide view over the heath and forest. The Tijdkijkerpad, a 4.5-kilometre loop marked with red arrows, starts at the large car park by the Stakenberg play meadow on the Stakenbergweg and passes viewing frames that show how the landscape looked in earlier times before ending near the tower.

The heath suits walkers, cyclists and families who want open space and big skies within a short ride of a village centre. Paths are mostly sandy and level.