Inspiration
Stories from the islanders
History, nature, places and people from our village. Read them over a cup of coffee or save them for the journey.
Culture · 4 min read
The language that disappeared with one woman
Until 1993, there was still one person who spoke Vlielands. When she died at the age of 107, the language was gone.
Culture · 4 min read
Hip hip hooray for a patch of ground
Every year on King's Day the Netherlands sings the Wilhelmus, and afterwards Vlieland sings its own anthem. It was written by a schoolteacher from Franeker.
History · 6 min read
Why bombs fall on the Vliehors
The western third of Vlieland is a Natura 2000 area, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the only part of the Netherlands where NATO pilots are permitted to practice with live ammunition. That contradiction is no accident.
Culture · 5 min read
The church built from the sea
Pews made of beachcombed timber, pillars from ship masts, chandeliers from a Swedish king and Michiel de Ruyter, and six whale jawbones that served as grave markers. Everything in this building comes from the sea.
History · 6 min read
Two hundred and fifty years of post across the beach
In the nineteenth century, a letter from Amsterdam to Vlieland took 43 hours. It travelled by horse, by boat, across the sea, and for the final eight kilometres over the barren Vliehors.
Nature · 3 min read
The woodland on Vlieland: from drifting sand to walking paths
The woodland on Vlieland was largely planted to stabilise drifting sand. At the Oude Kooi and in Bomenland, that history is still visible.
History · 6 min read
The Vlielander who charted Australia
He was born on the Dorpsstraat, sailed with three ships towards a coast no one knew, and then vanished so completely from history that we do not even know when he died.
Inspiration · 4 min read
The best places for sunset
Four places on an island where nothing blocks the light. And the hour afterwards, which is often more beautiful than the sunset itself.
Nature · 5 min read
On a seal safari: where do you see them best?
Harbour seals, grey seals, and with a bit of luck an entire sandbank full of them. Where they rest and how the tide changes the view of the sandbanks.
Inspiration · 3 min read
A day on Vlieland with children
A crossing, beach, woods and the village: possibilities for an island day with children, without a fixed programme.
History · 7 min read
Stelling 12H: the bunker village that vanished beneath the sand
During the war, there were more German soldiers stationed on Vlieland than there were residents. Of their three strongholds, one has been preserved — beneath the dune sand, and back above ground since 2020.
Nature · 2 min read
Walking across the Vliehors: the Sahara of the North
A sand plain of over 2,100 hectares on the western tip of Vlieland. About the landscape, the lost village, and the possibilities for taking a trip there.
Nature · 4 min read
Vuurboetsduin: the highest point in Friesland
Over forty metres of sand, topped by a lighthouse that itself only reaches eighteen metres. The highest point in the province is a dune.
History · 6 min read
How Vlieland lost its western village — the story of 1736
Vlieland once had two villages. By 1736, only two houses of the western one remained standing. The rest lay under water.
Culture · 5 min read
Tromp's Huys: the oldest house on the island (1575)
Built in the year the village burnt to the ground, lived in by the Norwegian painter Betzy Akersloot-Berg, and a museum since 1956. The oldest house on Vlieland has had more lives than most islanders.
Culture · 6 min read
Over thirty listed buildings in one village street — a walk through Oost-Vlieland
Almost all of Vlieland’s listed buildings are on a single street. A walk of less than a kilometre past four centuries of island history.
History · 6 min read
Kroon's Polders: how a dune warden made the island wider
Jan Wouter Kroon wanted to reclaim agricultural land from the sea. That failed. What he created by accident is now one of the richest bird areas of the shallows.
Inspiration · 3 min read
Vlieland in winter: quiet, storm and silence
Winter light on the beach, walking paths through the woods and the village where we live and work all year round. In winter too, we are glad to welcome you.