Burial Mound Burgemeestersbos

Just past the main entrance of the De Paltz estate, the marked route for the introduction to the Burgemeestersbos turns right again. There, too, the nature trail zigzags through an area with a lot of heavy coniferous and hardwood. Special attention should be paid to the presence of a number of tall sweet chestnuts. These trees are not related to the wild horse chestnut that was often planted in public gardens and wide streets. The sweet chestnut is an exotic species from the Mediterranean region, which was brought to our regions by the Romans.
The Burgemeestersbos grows on a moraine terrace, the almost flat top of which is almost 30 meters above sea level. On the inside, the terrace borders the northern flank of the slightly articulated moraine ridge 't Soesterhoogt.
The Burgemeestersbos also presents all kinds of micro-relief. In doing so, one gets to see both natural-looking bowls and larger pits. The natural-looking bowls will have been swirled out by meltwater or created by bomb explosions. The presence of the larger pits will often be related to the small-scale mining of gravel that used to be customary. This would have been particularly the case where the larger pits had a rather irregular shape and were surrounded by heaps.
Special mention should be made of the presence of several large burial mounds in the forest.
The route zigzags through the Burgemeestersbos also runs for about a hundred meters along the upper edge of a large deep quarry. This arose during the large-scale excavation that the southern part of the De Paltz estate had to undergo in the second half of the last century. During this later excavation, which unfortunately expanded to the northwest, part of the lateral moraine ridge 't Soesterhoogt also disappeared.
South of the Burgemeestersbos are a few mini-estates, one of which was christened Zuiderduin. The outskirts are not freely accessible, which is why no nature trail was traced.

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