Loosdrechtse Plassen

The Loosdrechtse Plassen are about twenty-five square kilometres of shallow lakes between Hilversum and Utrecht, dug out as peat from the sixteenth century and left as water when the strips between the pits collapsed - the same process that made most Dutch inland lakes. Because they are shallow, sheltered and within half an hour of Amsterdam and Utrecht, they became the classic Dutch sailing water: dinghy and small keelboat sailing since the nineteenth century, with clubs, hire fleets, boathouses on the banks and a dense pattern of moorings. Water quality was badly damaged in the twentieth century by nutrient loading, and long restoration work - phosphate stripping, dredging, reed replanting - has been running since. The reed lands and legakkers, the narrow strips left between old peat pits, hold birds and are part of the Vechtplassen protected area. Kortenhoef and Ankeveen adjoin.

What you actually see

• Twenty-five square kilometres of peat lakes - dug from the sixteenth century.
• A classic Dutch sailing water - clubs and hire fleets since the nineteenth century.
• Legakkers - the narrow strips left between old peat pits, holding birds.
• Long restoration work - dredging and nutrient stripping after twentieth-century damage.

When to go

May to September. A day.

Honest expectations

Very busy in summer with boats and moorings. Shore access is limited - most of the bank is private or club ground. Blue-green algae warnings occur in hot weather. Water is shallow and weedy.

Nearby

Hilversum and the Zonnestraal sanatorium are east; Utrecht is south.