Tour of Onlanden and the Leekstermeer

Your cycling route starts at Cnossen Leekstermeer. Nienoord Estate is best known for the former Borg Nienoord. A nineteenth-century country house now stands on the spot where the castle was built in 1525. The Van Ewsum family of the Nienoord borg has started the major peat extraction here. They drained the area with the construction of the Leekster Hoofddiep. Around the Leekstermeer you drive through rugged low peat areas. These are the Onlanden, with vast grasslands, but also groves and hedgerows. Then you cycle to Esdorp Peize, where hops were grown for brewers from Groningen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A little further on you will pass Woldzigt, a unique grain and oil mill from 1852. In appearance, this building is a cross between a farm and a windmill.