Latest Fieldnotes

Access: The field was in crop so we simply took a couple of photos and headed onwards. From where we took the photos we couldn’t tell what access was like, unfortunately.

The Jaettestuekammer ved Kinderballe is on Langeland, and easy to find from Hesselbjerg. Simply continue for around 2.5km on the same road out of Hesselbjerg village heading SE then bending south.

When you pass Kinderballe, the road kinks to the west & back to head SSW. The stones are clearly visible a short distance ahead in the field on the right (west).

Seen from a distance 5 April 2006
Huge stones on an imposing mound. The scary bit is how big the covering mound would have been, as as far as we could see, these look like the chambers of a langdysse!!!

I’d love to get up to this place one day!

Visited 2 April 2006
We couldn’t spot this one – is it destroyed? If not, I would have thought it would have been visible from the nearest roads....

We weren’t able to enter the field for a poke around though, so we may have missed something!

With the light almost gone, we really needed clear directions to get to Steenbergen before dark. I fouled up on the navigation and we went the wrong way. Then, just as we really needed shit-hot directions from Julian (as they had been most of the two days we’d used his instructions) he let us down. However, we found it. (just turn right when you get to the first T-junction in Steenbergen village and follow the lane round till you see the car park.) Just as we had started the day with a rip-roaring beauty, we ended it on a high. Steenbergen is marvellous. Up on a dune this lovely six-capstoned animal perches in the sand, complete with dinky dolmen-style portal. For some reason it had a single strand of barbed wire fence around it. Protection from what, we wondered? We just climbed under.

29 December 2003
Well-signposted in the village of Noord sleen near Emmen, this hunebed lies complete with kerbstones close to its more trashed neighbour, D51.

Visible from D51, perhaps just 50 metres away, is D50 and this is a cracker. Ten metres long, maybe more, and with 8 of its original 9 capstones still there and all still supported by their uprights, this monument is in really good shape enhanced by its original kerbstones encircling the line of ‘dolmens’. And today, sparkling under yesterday’s snowfall, it was magical, the snowmelt creating beautiful abstract shapes and blueish light against the greeny grey stones. While Moth made photographs, I made a quick sketch.

29 December 2003

Following Julian’s instructions in The Megalithic European we quickly located D50 and D51 at the tiny hamlet of Noordsleen, near Emmen.

Our footsteps crunching the 150ms up the icy farm track towards the copse in which they lie, the first hunebed you reach is D51. With only three capstones remaining, this site feels a bit trashed, but with snow on the stones and the huge flat fields all around glistening it felt exciting and special to be there, as this was both Moth’s and Cleo’s first hunebed.

(Also known as Papeloze Kerk)

Last time I was in Drenthe, I had only a crappy map to work from so completely failed to find this one, which I desperately wanted to see. It turns out I had been only about 200 metres from the monument which lies in an intimate glade in dense woodland. Happily, this time, with Julian’s instructions in TME we found it immediately.

Even the approach is thrilling, down an avenue of trees, like walking into an early van Gogh drawing. And at the end of the avenue lies the prize! Today, covered with snow, it looked like a giant Christmas cake… and equally delicious and fulfilling. This is different from other hunebedden in that part of the mound has been rebuilt, so it gives a really good idea of what they might have once looked like. It reminded me of an over-sized Scillionian cairn.
I sat on the ice, my frozen arse forcing me to make a VERY quick sketch.

The more I looked, the more I loved it. This place is magic. If you come to Drenthe, make sure you see this one.

Emmen Schimeres is the only ‘langgraf’ in the Netherlands. It has a complete kerb of massive stones and its chambers are just beginning to show through what is left of its barrow. A monster and a beauty just on the outskirts of Emmen (off the Odoorn Road). Signposted. Opposite the Mazda garage.

‘It’s just like Wayland’s Smithy!’ exclaimed Cleo. She’s right. I’d been here before, but not in the snow.

The snow provided highlights which emphasized the tremendous length of this langgraf and the closely spaced massive kerbstones seemed to taper off into infinity. The snow also helped to throw out the shapes of the two exposed chambers, rising from the cushion of barrow still within the kerbstones. We all liked this one very much, and like Papeloze Kerk, if you make it to Drenthe, put this one on you list of ‘must-sees’.

A drive of no more than one kilometre north of Schimeres langgraf, Emmermeer (or Emmen Noord as Julian calls it in TME) is a really pretty little hunebed, sweetly sited three metres from the roadside on a piece of undeveloped heathland opposite some 1970s apartments. This one is quite small, but its four dainty flattish stones balanced beautifully on its legs has the appearance of a mini Frank Lloyd Wright prairie style house.

On the western outskirts of Emmen is Valther Forest. There are three hunebedden here, D38, D39 and D40. They’re not in fantastic condition, but they are in the most glorious woodland setting. Go there for complete peace.

D38, D39 and D40 stand in a delightful heathland clearing in the forest near Emmen. They’re all a bit wrecked, but the location is so gorgeous, they’re well worth visiting.

D38, D39 and D40 stand in a delightful heathland clearing in the forest near Emmen. They’re all a bit wrecked, but the location is so gorgeous, they’re well worth visiting.

D40 is the most impressive of this trio of ‘grafheuvels’ in the Valther Forest just north of Emmen. It would be a fairly long walk to them from the road, so risking the wrath of the forest ranger and being completely unable to read the signs, I drove up the sandy forest track until we found them in a bright forest clearing.

You approach D40 first, which is the most complete of the trio. Two great capstones are supported by six sidestones which seemed to us to have more beneath the ground level than above.

Strike off to the west for 20 metres through the low growing heathers and you find D38 and D39.

All three have distinct round raised ringed walls of sand hinting at the size and scale of what once must’ve been quite a necropolis of round barrows.

This wasn’t on our list, but we passed so close by it on our way up to Borger, we couldn’t resist calling in to say ‘hi’. Easy to find, this rather wrecked monument nevertheless has charms. It’s bucolic position in it own little copse in the middle of wide open fields is cosy and inviting. Only one capstone is still supported, the rest are down, giving it the feeling of a wounded animal, not yet quite willing to admit defeat. All but one hunebedden are in state care, with no risk of being ploughed up or dismantled, so Odoorn’s survival in it’s broken condition is assured. By the time we got to Odoorn, most of the snow had melted from the monument in the bright, crisp sunshine.

After lunching in a comfy and quirky typically Dutch eetcafe called ‘t Hunebed in the centre of Borger village, we made our way to the edge of the village to the largest hunebed of the lot – what Julian calls the ‘Great Borger Hunebed’. The Rijkshunebed Informatiecentrum is here, too, and sold lots of lovely books and stuff – but not a damn thing in English. Easy to find – just get yourself to Borger (a very pretty town) and follow the signs. Tip: its in the north of the village.

Borger is a monster. Simply huge. Deeply impressive, its giant backbone of capstones all supported, it does feel like a sleeping dinosaur or huge segmented insect larvae. I challenge the most disinterested person not to go ‘Ooh!’ at this one. It feels slightly soulless to me; though this might be because it is undoubtedly the most visited and exploited.

Drive back into Emmen and out the other side past the railway station on the Boslaan into yet another forested area , the Emmer Dennen, and you will find D45, the great Emmen hunebed just a 10 minute walk from the city centre. I had seen a photo of it on Hans Meijer’s wonderful site, but it didn’t prepare me for the mammoth, in-yer-face gorgeousness of it!

Again surrounded by mature mixed woodland, this impressed me more than the biggest hunebed of them all that we had first seen at Borger, in fact I find it hard to believe that the one at Borger is bigger. The lime irredescent flash of a woodpecker as it swooped through the branches lead our way towards it. On a high raised area of what remains of the barrow, six whopping capstones are held aloft by at least 17 uprights. It has endstones, a porch and I counted 13 kerbstones which once would’ve marked the edge of the barrow’s gigantic footprint. Apparently there once were 38 kerbstones, but who cares? The 13 that remain are sufficient evidence of a very tall, grand structure indeed.

D14 at Eexterhalte, near Eext and Gieten villages, is one of the bigger hunebedden, with six giant capstones all still up, a line of entrance stones and seven big kerbstones marking out the original shape. In a tree-lined clearing with it own parking space this must be a magnet for summer picnickers.

A nice little hunebed, five stones long, in a very rural setting. Today, the shelter from the drizzle afforded by the holly trees all around was very welcome.

We’d spotted this on Hans Meijer’s hunebedden website (www.hunebedden.com) and despite having no real idea how to get to it, felt we just couldn’t miss it. We had only a crappy map, sporadic road signs and sheer determination to get us there. Balloo village straggled out in all directions but we finally picked up a sign and followed it. So you don’t have to struggle, here’s how to get there:

Go to Balloo and follow the ‘hunebed’ signs. As you leave the final buildings of the village, stay on the main track where a muddier track forks right. You’re on a track through a nature reserve. It says you’re not mean to take vehicles down here, but nobody was about so we did anyway. After ¾km a cycle path forks left, but continue on and go right at the next T-junction. Go along this muddy track which meanders from side-to-side, for around another ¾ km. Turn right at the next junction. (We nearly gave up at this point!) Go up to the end of that bit and turn left at that T-junction. You’ll probably see the monument 400ms to the left of the junction. With care, we drove it in thick mud in an ordinary family saloon car. You shouldn’t need a 4W drive.

This one is well worth the effort. Remotely sited on the edge of nowhere, it has a glorious sense of peace and is in very good shape indeed. It looked lean and slim and had an extraordinary grace to it. This one also has its portal stones and for all you rock art fans, look out for the cup marks!

Just out of the village of Loon, one field away from the railway line lies the remains of Loon hunebed. In the ploughed up parsnip field next to it they’d been muckspreading so the place stank, but the sweet sight of D15 soon filled our senses. Though reasonably small, this one still has lots of lovely kerbstones and the rise of its original barrow is still very apparent. It also has its original portal entrance, with capstone still up, like a tiny little dolmen. Tons of character here.

Ooh! In TME, Julian says he couldn’t find this one, but we found it with ease. I always smile when I visit monuments in urban settings and this one didn’t disappoint. With only two flat capstones balanced on five remaining uprights, it looks very like a mini-allee-couverte or a ‘My Little Hunebed’. Nestling between tidy, small 1950s detached houses, and opposite a bus shelter, someone had used the monument as a convenient bike park. It had a plot of land all to itself and looked very comfortable with its current position.

I think Julian calls this one Annen but it is in the village of Noordlo on the main drag north out of the village.

Leaving Drenthe province, we briefly entered Groningen province by a few hundred metres to find G1 just outside the village of Noordlaren. It is signposted but you need to keep your eyes peeled to see it. Walk about 200ms on the path through the fields towards the trees and you’ll find what’s left of this once mighty beast. Judging by the size of the remaining stones, just two capstoned segments giving the impression of a double dolmen, it was up there with the largest. It has phenomenal interior width spanning 2½ metres.

D6 is also rather unattractively named ‘the Devils Cunt’ lies within spitting distance of a busy level crossing, in a clearing on the outskirts of the village with trains roaring past. It’s quite small – just three small capstones long. It feels quite complete though, rather than being a fragment of anything bigger, as it is nicely proportioned and still retains endstones.

Moth thought it was slightly disappointing, but I liked its neatness. As we could park on the road pretty much next to it, I sat in the car to make a sketch through the window out of the rain.

Julian doesn’t mention D5 in TME, but we saw it marked on the map and happened to be passing close by the village. We thought we’d have a go at finding it, despite the fact that we were beginning to lose the light. We did. And there it was. From the lane, it looked pretty disappointing, but as we approached we saw that actually it was sunken and still had plenty of barrow material around it, curvaceously moulded around the 3 smallish segments.

We drove to Zeijen and spotted a sign to the hunebed. We must have been one kilometre out of the village already so we turned back, thinking we might pick up another sign that we had missed. No luck. So I called in at the village bakkerij to ask directions. The woman behind the counter had been doing a roaring trade in oliebollen (a Dutch doughnut with sultanas in traditionally eaten on New Year’s Eve) and was surprised to hear me ask ‘Waar is het hunebed, alstublieft?’ She wasn’t fooled by my pathetic attempts in Dutch and gave me clear directions in English: ‘Keep going at least one kilometre, you’ll see the sign on your right.‘

On the way up to see D1 at Steenbergen and D2 at Westervelde (which we had to give up on) we passed through the village of Norg. The church, which is on the main drag next to the village centre car park has the remnants of a monument just outside the front door, sandwiched between it and the main road. These small stones don’t have an official D number, but they were clearly part of something. We spotted some other suspicious-looking stones in the car park which had been carefully tarmac’d around rather than moved or carted off, which we felt was quite significant.

There are two hunebedden at Drouwen, just about 50 metres apart and another one (D26) about a kilometer away. D20 is one of the twins. We were actually on our way to Bronneger to see the five there, but passing through Drouwen to get there, we suddenly glimpsed the twins of D19 and D20 no more than 10 metres apart.

They have there own big space in parkland on the edge of the village. People come here often – we could see the tracks in the snow – to exercise their dogs, play with their kids or just as a point to walk to and from. How splendid that this pair of lovelies are still enjoyed.

D19 has virtually no kerbstones left but five of its capstones survive and are still up. Both D19 and D20 are a good size, too, like D52 at Noordsleen and just as impressive.