Gaasterland

Gaasterland is the south-western corner of Friesland and it is the one part of the province that is not flat: a ridge of boulder clay pushed up by ice in the Saale glaciation rises to about thirty metres, which sounds trivial and is not, in a landscape where everything else is polder at or below sea level. Where the ridge meets the IJsselmeer it forms low cliffs - the Roode Klif and the Mirnser Klif - eroded red-brown clay faces standing a few metres above the water, the only cliffs on the Dutch inland sea. Behind them lie old estate woodlands with beech avenues, planted from the seventeenth century when the ridge was bought up by wealthy families, along with heath fragments and small lakes. Erratic boulders dropped by the ice are found in the clay. The area is walked and cycled and is much quieter than the Frisian lakes.

What you actually see

• An ice-pushed ridge - boulder clay to about thirty metres, unique in Friesland.
• Low clay cliffs - the Roode Klif and Mirnser Klif above the IJsselmeer.
• Estate woodland - beech avenues planted from the seventeenth century.
• Glacial erratics - boulders dropped by the ice, found in the clay.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Honest expectations

The hills are modest by any standard outside the Netherlands - the interest is relative. Cliff edges erode and are fenced in places. Facilities are limited to a few villages.

Nearby

Stavoren and the IJsselmeer shore are west; the Frisian lakes are north-east.