Jane

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.

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.

There are two hunebedden at Rolde, just about 50 metres apart. They lie at the edge of the village in parkland next to a magnificent medieval brick built church and graveyard.

D18 is in much better condition than its twin, D17, with all its capstones up. A large hunebed is a textbook example, but I found it strangely characterless.

D3 and D4 hunebedden are almost Siamese twins and locked toegther in a row. They are now both in such a sorry state, squeezed end-to-end between the garden of a run down cottage and a crumbling, disused farm building. Their massive stones have been knocked down and lie strewn about, hinting at what once was. They looked tired, almost dead, for practically all the capstones were knocked off their feet. But for all that, we found them curiously enchanting collapsed in their higgledy-piggledy semi-rural alleyway.

D3 and D4 hunebedden are almost Siamese twins and locked toegther in a row. They are now both in such a sorry state, squeezed end-to-end between the garden of a run down cottage and a crumbling, disused farm building. Their massive stones have been knocked down and lie strewn about, hinting at what once was. They looked tired, almost dead, for practically all the capstones were knocked off their feet. But for all that, we found them curiously enchanting collapsed in their higgledy-piggledy semi-rural alleyway.

Here at Bronneger, near Drouwen, you get five all at once in a glorious bucolic setting with fields and woodlands. And though badly trashed, they still have the power to enchant, both individually and as a group.

D21 is a small monument and has all three of its capstones still up and neat little endstones like full stops. It is very reminiscent of D6 at Tynaarlo. Nestling against it is a delightful mature tree. It is no more than 4ms away from its closest neighbour, D22.

Here at Bronneger, near Drouwen, you get five all at once in a glorious bucolic setting with fields and woodlands. And though badly trashed, they still have the power to enchant, both individually and as a group.

Just 4ms from its closest neighbour, D21, D22 is reduced to just two large flat capstones on the ground at the base of a tree.

Here at Bronneger, near Drouwen, you get five all at once in a glorious bucolic setting with fields and woodlands. And though badly trashed, they still have the power to enchant, both individually and as a group.

D23, D24 and D25 stand in a little copse about 50ms from D21 and D22.
D23 is just a dolmen now with a couple of other stones scattered around. Nevertheless, if this part alone was transported to a remote Yorkshire moor, I know many stones enthusiasts for who would traipse over rough ground to see it.

Just two kilometers out of Borger as you drive east towards Buinen, if you look to you right, in a sandy field, you will clearly see D28 and D29 in their own little state-owned space.

Indeed, all hunebedden except the ruinous one at Westernesch are nationally maintained. It gave me a little thrill of excitement that I had found this one so easily. It was quite discreetly signposted and might easily have been missed.

A short stroll of 50ms or so from the car and you approach to D29 first. D28 lies just 10 or 15ms beyond it. They are both very similarly sized, both having clearly originally having three capstones, but now both only have two. This two-for-the-price-of-one double whammy of hunebedden!