Fochteloerveen

The Fochteloerveen straddles the Drenthe-Friesland border and is about twenty-five square kilometres of raised bog, of which a core is still actively growing peat - which in western Europe puts it in a very short list, since almost every such bog was cut away for fuel. It survived because the cutting stopped before it reached the middle, and since the 1930s dams and rewetting have raised the water table back. In 2001 common cranes bred here, the first confirmed Dutch breeding in about four hundred years, and the population has grown since; adders, hen harriers, curlew and large numbers of geese are also here. Access is on marked routes with an observation tower, and the core is closed. Nearby Veenhuizen was a nineteenth-century colony of institutions for the poor and later a prison village, now a UNESCO-listed site.

What you actually see

• A living raised bog - still growing peat, which almost none in western Europe do.
• Cranes breeding again - returned in 2001 after roughly four centuries.
• An observation tower - the main viewpoint over the open bog.
• Rewetting works - dams raising the water table back since the 1930s.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Honest expectations

The bog core is closed and viewing is from marked routes and the tower. It is flat and open with no shade and heavy wind. Cranes are distant and need optics. Mosquitoes are severe.

Nearby

Veenhuizen and its colony buildings are east; Assen is south-east.