Nieuwkoopse Plassen

The Nieuwkoopse Plassen are what is left after four hundred years of peat cutting: from the sixteenth century the ground here was dug for turf, the pits filled with water, the strips between them eroded, and the result is a landscape of shallow lakes, reed beds, narrow channels and floating fen covering about fourteen hundred hectares. The reed was then cut commercially for thatch, which is still done in winter and which maintains the habitat. It is one of the important Dutch wetland sites, with purple heron, bittern, marsh harrier, black tern and a large night-time roost of starlings and swallows in autumn. Access is best by water - canoes and small electric boats are hired locally and marked routes thread the channels - and there are walking paths on the edges and a visitor centre. The Meije, a strip village on a dyke, runs along one side.

What you actually see

• Lakes dug for peat - four centuries of turf cutting that made the landscape.
• Commercial reed cutting - still done each winter and maintaining the habitat.
• Marked water routes - canoes and electric boats through the channels.
• Autumn roosts - very large gatherings of starlings and swallows in the reed.

When to go

April to September. A day.

Honest expectations

The best of it is only reachable by boat - walking access is limited to the edges. Mosquitoes are severe. Parts close during the breeding season. Reed cutting restricts winter access.

Nearby

Woerden is east; Leiden and the bulb region are west.