Maasheggen walking route near Boxmeer

Your walking route starts at Hotel-Cafe Restaurant't Departure. Boxmeer is surrounded by meadow areas and the Maasheggen and Brestbosch nature reserves, a beautiful area for a walk. First you walk to the Schraalzand. This rugged and wild nature reserve was once a former swamp area where trees were planted at the end of the nineteenth century. Then you cross to the Maas with the authentic Maasheggen, a true cultural heritage. Nowhere else will you find so many hawthorns and blackthorns together. Thanks to human intervention, these shrubs grow into each other. The spiky hedges served as a boundary between plots and provided timber. This hedge weaving already existed in Roman times: Julius Caesar described his annoyance about it, it took him a lot of effort to pass these green walls with his army!