Dwingelderveld National Park

Dwingelderveld is heathland on a scale that is rare in a country this crowded: a broad plateau of heather and grass with hundreds of pools scattered across it, boggy in places and dry sand in others, edged by pine and juniper. A flock of Drenthe heath sheep still grazes parts of it and returns to a fold each evening. In August the heather turns and the plain goes purple for two or three weeks, which is when most people come. It is also one of the darkest and quietest places in the Netherlands, with no through roads and no floodlighting. The dish of a radio telescope from the 1950s stands at the edge of the heath, kept as a monument.

What you actually see

• The flowering heath - two or three weeks in August when the whole plateau turns purple.
• The heath pools - shallow ponds across the open ground, with dragonflies and specialist bog plants.
• The sheep flock and fold - a traditional Drenthe heath flock still grazing the reserve and penned each evening.
• The old radio telescope - a 1950s dish at the edge of the heath, preserved as an industrial monument.

When to go

August is the obvious month for flowering heather, and it is also the busiest. September and October are quieter with better light and clearer air. Winter nights are long and clear enough for stargazing when the weather cooperates. Avoid the middle of hot summer days, when the open heath has no shade at all.

Honest expectations

Outside the flowering weeks the heath is brown and repetitive, and the flat ground gives no vantage point to make sense of it. Paths look alike and it is easy to lose your bearings without a map. Ticks are a real problem in the grass and low heather. Parking at popular entrances fills by mid-morning in August, and the pools bring mosquitoes at dusk.

Nearby

The brook valleys and heath of central Drenthe continue north towards Assen.