Utrechtse Heuvelrug National Park

The Heuvelrug is a ridge of sand and gravel shoved up by glaciers, running from the Gooi lakes down to the Rhine, and it is the reason the middle of the Netherlands has woods and slopes at all. Most of it is forest: beech, oak and planted pine on dry sandy tracks, broken by patches of heath and by the parkland of the country estates built along the ridge when owning a piece of it was fashionable. Burial mounds thousands of years old sit quietly beside footpaths. The one built landmark is the Pyramid of Austerlitz, an earth pyramid raised in 1804, with a stone obelisk added on top in 1894 and steps to a platform that clears the treetops, giving a rare wide view.

What's there

• The Pyramid of Austerlitz - an earth pyramid from 1804 with a viewing platform above the canopy.
• Sandy forest tracks - long straight rides through beech, oak and pine, laid out by the old estates.
• Heath clearings - open purple patches on the ridge in late summer, notably around Leersum and Amerongen.
• Estate parkland - country houses with landscaped grounds, walled gardens and avenues along the ridge.

When to go

Spring for fresh beech leaf and bluebells in the estate woods, October for colour on the ridge. Summer weekends are busy with day trippers from the surrounding towns, so weekday mornings are better. Winter walking is fine here because the sandy soil drains quickly, unlike most of the country's low-lying paths.

Things to know

The relief is modest and the trees block what little view exists, so expect pleasant woodland walking rather than landscape. The park is cut by motorways, railways and villages, and traffic noise carries; it never feels remote. Ticks are common on the heath edges. Parking near the pyramid and the popular entrances is charged and fills up on sunny weekends.

Nearby

Utrecht is twenty minutes by train, and the wooded ridge continues north towards Amersfoort.

Key facts