Bargerveen

The Bourtangerveen was a raised bog of enormous size straddling the Dutch-German border, and it was almost entirely dug for peat between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries; the canal towns of south-east Drenthe exist because of that industry. The Bargerveen is about twenty-one square kilometres of what was left when cutting finally ended in 1992, and it is the largest remnant of that bog in the Netherlands. Dams, water storage and rewetting have been used since to hold water on the peat and get sphagnum growing again, and the results are watched as a test case for whether a cut bog can be brought back. Its birds include hen harrier, short-eared owl, nightjar and red-backed shrike, and adders live on the peat. With the German moor across the border it forms the international nature park Bourtanger Moor-Bargerveen.

What's there

• The last piece of the Bourtangerveen - twenty-one square kilometres of a once-vast bog.
• Rewetting on a large scale - dams and storage getting sphagnum growing again.
• Cranes and harriers - breeding on the open bog since the 2010s.
• A cross-border reserve - German protected bog continuing on the far side.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Things to know

Flat, open and exposed with no shade and constant wind. Mosquitoes are severe. Much of the interior is closed. The surroundings are peat-colony landscape - canals and straight roads, which some find bleak.

Nearby

Emmen and its Veenpark peat museum are north-west; the German border is east.

Key facts