Orvelte

Orvelte is a Saxon farming village on the Drenthe sand with thatched hall-houses of the type built across the north-east - the boerderij where family and animals lived under one roof - and in the 1960s, when such villages were being modernised out of existence, a foundation bought the whole settlement and set it up as a museum village. That means the buildings are preserved, cars are kept out of the centre, and craft workshops operate in some of them - a clog maker, a smith, a bakery - while the farms remain lived in and worked. It is a genuine village with a preservation regime rather than a reconstruction, which puts it somewhere between Orvelte's neighbours and a skansen. The Drenthe landscape around has hunebedden, the neolithic megalithic tombs of this region, and the Ellertsveld heath.

What you actually see

• Saxon hall-farms - thatched houses where family and animals lived under one roof.
• A village bought whole - preserved from the 1960s rather than reconstructed.
• Working craft workshops - clog maker, smith and bakery in the buildings.
• Farms still lived in - a working village under a preservation regime.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Honest expectations

Parking is charged and cars are excluded from the centre. Workshops keep seasonal hours and are commercial. It is small and busy with families in summer. Houses are private homes.

Nearby

Hunebedden are scattered across Drenthe; Assen and the Drents Museum are north.