Hippolytus's hoof on foot

Wieringen calls itself the secret Wadden Island. The former island was 'linked' to North Holland in 1924 by diking and reclamation. Yet Wieringen has retained its island feel, partly because the rolling moraine landscape contrasts so beautifully with the low polders in the area.

This walk will introduce you to authentic Wieringen. 

Just outside Hippolytushoef you walk on the dike along the Wadden Sea. It smells wonderfully salty here. When the weather is nice you can see the Kop van Noord-Holland and Texel. You will pass Molen De Onderneming, a thatched corn and peeling mill from 1851.

If you walk along the west side, think back to the function that this part of Wieringen had in VOC times. Ships returning from the East landed sick sailors here - almost within sight of the ports of Enkhuizen, Hoorn and Amsterdam. This quarantine was intended to prevent diseases from spreading on shore.

The Wierdijk, which dates back to the sixteenth century, begins in the hamlet of De Hoelm. It is the only remaining dike in Holland and is therefore considered a cultural-historical monument. The dike ran on the former south coast of Wieringen and was reinforced with seagrass. A reconstruction of the dike can only be viewed at De Hoelm.

You walk on farmland paths through vast arable lands. Along the way you will certainly stop a few times to take a closer look at the historic Wieringer farms. Wieringen certainly has a rich and eventful history. In the ninth century, the island briefly served as a base for Danish Vikings. And after the First World War, Wieringen served as a place of exile for the refugee German Crown Prince Wilhelm from 1918 to 1923. The story goes that blacksmith Jan Luyt from Hippolytushoef taught the crown prince how to forge horseshoes.