Norger Esdorpen Landscape and Fochteloërveen

The Landscape

The Norger Esdorpen Landscape is one of the best-preserved cultural landscapes in the Netherlands. Located in North Drenthe, the area is characterized by a small-scale, historic landscape of fields on sandy ridges surrounded by hedgerows, patches of heathland, and old farmsteads. Traditional villages centered around a village green with thatched-roof farms and tree-lined lanes lie around these fields, reflecting a rich agricultural heritage. Between the villages you will find former heathland clearings crossed by sandy paths and old cart tracks. A striking feature is the gradual transition from open arable fields to sheltered stream valleys where wet grasslands, marshes, and alder carrs gently slope down to the lower-lying grounds.

The Fochteloërveen is one of the last and best-preserved raised bog landscapes in Western Europe. Located on the border between Friesland and Drenthe, this vast natural area unfolds as a wide, almost otherworldly landscape of peat, water, and sky. The landscape is open and untouched, the horizon seems endless, and the silence is unusually deep. The area forms a striking contrast with the surrounding farmland. Vast peat plains, wet sloughs, peat holes, and straight canals recall the region’s history of peat cutting. Today, living raised bog is once again developing here, a rare and fragile ecosystem that takes centuries to grow. At the northern edge of the Fochteloërveen lies the village of Veenhuizen. Once a pauper colony and later a penal colony, it has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021.