Groenekan

This route takes us a little further back to the present on the geological timescale. The beginning of the route runs over sandy soils that were deposited during the last ice age, from 116,000 to about 11,000 years ago. The route ends along peat soils and polders and discusses the effect of humans on this peat landscape, from the Middle Ages to about 200 years ago.

Large oaks line the road, trees that have traditionally been found on the nutrient-poor sandy soils. This corresponds to the fact that the road ends in De Bilt, a name derived from ‘te belt’. The current word mound is derived from the word ‘belt’, and the place name literally means ‘on a mound’. This mound was an outlier of the Utrecht Ridge.

Teun van Woerkom