Local & Delicious Route

Winding roads, small mound villages and old mills. Originally, the region in Central Humsterland focused mainly on agriculture, but it gradually became more and more of a commuter community for the nearby city, the capital of our northernmost province. The municipality also contains the ancient cultural landscapes of Middag and Humsterland, with the area around and above the village of Oldenhove being the oldest cultural landscape in Western Europe. National Landscape Midden-Humsterland is characterized by natural and cultural-historical landscape elements such as mounds, salt marshes and dikes. The plots of the agricultural land are irregularly distributed and you can see far into the open landscape. You see the characteristic old farms, often of the head-neck-trunk type that was popular in 1850, but also other monumental farms. When you cycle through the Midden-Humsterland National Landscape, you will not be surprised that this beautiful Dutch area is on the World Heritage List. The cycle route starts near the De Meeuw mill. De Meeuw was built in 1851 to replace a burnt-out post mill. The mill underwent several restorations in the twentieth century, during which the octagonal flour mill was stripped of its pelting stones. The mill can be visited on Sunday afternoon. You cycle four kilometers further to the Allersmaborg, which was built in a meander of the Reitdiep between Ezinge and Aduarderzijl. The oldest part of this castle is the fifteenth-century stone house, but the first settlement probably dates from up to three centuries earlier. In the sixteenth century, a wing was added, giving the castle an L-shape, and in the seventeenth century, canals were constructed, canals were added and a drawbridge was built. The Dovecote was founded in the mid-eighteenth century, but acquired a neo-Gothic style in the course of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, in 1976-1977, the castle was completely restored. Then you set course for Oldehove. The small town has less than 2,000 inhabitants and the village has a beautiful old tower mill from 1855. De Leeuw replaced an octagonal upper porter in 1789 that stood southwest of the church. In 1972 the mill was sold to the then municipality of Oldehove and in 1974 the mill was restored. This restoration took two years. In'78 the mill was put back into use for its original function; grinding and peeling. In the summer of 2010, the mill was out of operation for a short time to repair the inner rods. Minor repairs were carried out in 2011. Via the mound village Niehove you reach Piloersmaborg/Hamsterborg. This is the last farm borg in the Netherlands and the history of the castle dates back at least to 1521. In that year, the borg was the first to be mentioned in writing, when a pastor from Oldehove inherited the Piloersmaborg. The pastor's son-in-law transformed the farm into a fortified castle. In the decades that followed, the castle was extensively renovated and the war damage suffered was repaired several times, a facade stone from 1633 with the family coats of arms of the owners is proof of this. In 2013, a hotel is located in Piloersemaborg/Hamsterborg, meaning the castle can only be viewed from the inside by guests. The estate surrounding the deposit is freely accessible.