The Asberg and land dunes in Westerlo

During the last ice age, north winds from the foot of the glaciers that covered half of the Netherlands carried large amounts of sand. The landscape and the river valleys were buried under a coating of a few meters to even ten meters thick. Locally, the winds sculpted local sand dunes. After the last ice age, the dominant wind changed to the southwest. As a result, the existing sand dunes were hollowed out on the wind side so that they had a horseshoe-shaped view, the tip of which points to the northeast.
On the northeast side of the Asberg there is still chestnut coppice. Until the 19th century, chestnut trees were a source of firewood and commodious wood. From the second half of the 19th century, the Asberg was systematically planted with softwood for mining.

Jan Rymenams