Ommen, Witharen, Arriën

Ommen is surrounded by a beautiful and diverse landscape. Dark forests, country estates, farming landscapes, moraines and dunes. The diversity is due to the 14 hamlets that are part of the municipality of Ommen. These are the names of the hamlets in alphabetical order: Archem, Arriën, Beerze, Beerzerveld, Besthmen, Dalmsholte, Eerde, Giethmen, Hoogengraven, Junne, Nieuwebrug, Ommerkanaal, Ommerschans, Stegeren, Varsen, Vinkenbuurt and Witharen.

The history of these hamlets begins with Overijsselse Vecht. East of Dalfsen, this wide river had plenty of room to meander through the landscape. The regularly flooding Vecht left sand banks behind and was almost stationary in some places. It was a peaceful landscape. As early as prehistoric times, the first farms appeared on the sandy soils along the Vecht. The soil was very fertile but to provide the ever-growing population with enough food, the surrounding wasteland such as heathland, peat bogs and ponds also had to be used. To avoid getting in each other's way, the farmers made verbal agreements on the use of the land they came to regard as common property. The neighbours of neighbouring farms formed a hamlet (boerschap).

In the 13th century, many informal hamlets started organising themselves in the form of a marke. The rights and duties of the residents who were part of the marke were written down in marke books. The usage rights of the wasteland were distributed as a kind of share, the so-called wares. The marke were run by an official administration. The basic principle remained, that the inhabitants were only allowed to use the common lands for their own subsistence needs, to avoid their depletion. Yet, after hundreds of years, this small-scale farming came to an end with the advent of artificial fertilisers in the nineteenth century. In some places, the moors and their sheep gave way to pastures or planted forests. Due to the Marches Act, some peatlands of hamlets came into the hands of large landowners who started large-scale peat extraction.

This cycle route introduces you to some of Ommen's most beautiful hamlets. Discover the varied nature and contemporary initiatives.

The self-service ferry between nodes 66 and 67 is only operational between 1 April and 1 November. Outside this period, use node numbers 49 and 42 from node 48 to get to node 65.


This Premium cycle route was compiled by our editor: Elwin Croeze.