Hunebeds of Drenthe

Stone Age Megalithic Tombs About 5,000 Years Old, Built By The Funnelbeaker People, In The Hondsrug UNESCO Global Geopark · Borger, Drenthe

The hunebeds of Drenthe are the oldest monuments in the Netherlands: stone-age tombs built roughly 5,000 years ago by the Funnelbeaker people, the first farmers of the north, from huge boulders the ice age had dragged here from Scandinavia. About 50-odd survive, most of them strung along the Hondsrug, a low sandy ridge now protected as a UNESCO Global Geopark. The largest, D27 at Borger, is over 20 metres long and sits beside the Hunebedcentrum, a museum with finds, a film, a reconstructed prehistoric settlement and trails to more tombs. People come to walk or cycle between them through heath, woods and farmland, to picture how giants were once thought to have built them, and to see a quiet, green province few foreign visitors reach. The honest caveat: small stones, big story. A hunebed is a row of boulders with a few capstones on top, open to the sky, and without the museum or a good guide the site can look like rocks in a field. It is also a long way from Amsterdam and hard to see without a car or a bike.

Hunebedcentrum and the largest hunebed (D27) at Borger, with 50-odd hunebeds along the Hondsrug ridge, Borger, Drenthe, Netherlands

The hunebeds themselves stand in open fields and woods and can be visited free at any time. The Hunebedcentrum in Borger is usually open daily in daytime, with shorter hours in winter and closures on some holidays (confirm); allow two to three hours. There is no train to Borger: take an NS train to Assen or Emmen and a regional bus, or drive (about 2.5 hours from Amsterdam) and park at the centre. Bikes can be rented locally. Nothing needs booking except guided walks, school-holiday workshops and bike rental in summer.

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