Sand made by people
Medieval deforestation and sheep grazing set the sand loose.
Ainali — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Nathalie de Winter — CC BY-SA 3.0 nl · HenkvD — CC BY-SA 3.0 · HenkvD — CC BY-SA 3.0
A nature reserve and old estate on the sandy Utrecht Hill Ridge east of the city, combining pine and oak woodland, open heath and inland sand dunes. The inland dunes are what distinguishes the place. The Netherlands is known for its coastal dunes, but these are sands entirely away from the sea: they formed from glacial deposits and were then exposed when the forests were cut in the Middle Ages and sheep grazed what remained, setting the sand moving. The result is a landscape that looks desert-like in the middle of northern Europe, a rare and now protected ecosystem. The area is part of the Utrecht Hill Ridge, a raised belt left by the ice a hundred and fifty thousand years ago — the highest ground in the central Netherlands, though height here means tens of metres and no more. It holds an observation tower and marked walking and cycling routes, and cattle and horses graze it to keep the ground open. It is open with free entry.
Medieval deforestation and sheep grazing set the sand loose.
A ridge from a hundred and fifty thousand years ago, the central Netherlands' highest.
Cattle and horses graze to hold the ground open and treeless.
Between Zeist and Driebergen, east of Utrecht
Because the heath and sand landscape is not fully natural: it is the result of centuries of grazing and tree felling. Left alone the land would return to forest within decades, and the plants, insects and birds tied to open heath would disappear — among them species threatened across Europe. So Dutch reserves manage grazing deliberately: conservation here means preventing change rather than letting nature take its course.
By bicycle. The whole area is connected to the numbered Dutch route network, and Heidestein can be linked with neighbouring estates and woods in a half-day loop from Utrecht. Walking is also excellent and the paths are colour-marked. The best time is late August and September when the heather flowers and the landscape turns fully purple — the season the Dutch themselves come for.
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