A dike as backbone of the land - Lutjewinkel

Under your feet lies the West Frisian Omringdike, one of the oldest, strongest dikes of our country. Now you see land on both sides, but in the past that was very different. Behind you stretched open water, part of the wild Zuiderzee. Here the waves crashed against the dike. The villages Kolhorn, Barsingerhorn and Winkel were then still by the sea. Kolhorn even had city rights and was then a harbour town.

In 1844 started the land reclamation of the Waard and Groet polder. It was toiling on the salty ground: the first harvests could not withstand the salt. Only years later the polder became more fertile and the land began to give. Just like in the Wieringermeer polder the landscape is largely characterised by straight allotment with tight lines.

The history of the dike reaches back to the year 1000. Already then the first low dikes were designed. Later, in the 13th century, the dikes were connected as one continuous ring around all of West Friesland. This grew into the West Frisian Omringdike of no less than 126 kilometre long.

On the right side stands a stolp farm, the icon of the top of North Holland. These farms combine living, working and storage under one pyramid-shaped roof. The stolp was therefore in the past house, haystack and stable at the same time. Their striking square shape you see nowhere else in the Netherlands as much as here in the Noordkop.

Photo: ©Toporeis.nl, via Municipality Hollands Kroon