Starting Point Schagerbrug

Schagerbrug developed shortly after the reclamation of the Zijpe (1597) at a crossroads of land and water routes. The houses of farm workers, craftsmen, barge skippers and shopkeepers stood mainly along the Groote Sloot, the main canal through the polder. Schagerbrug was once the administrative centre of the polder. From 1785, the polder board – consisting of the dyke warden, landholders, secretary and treasurer – met in the domed room of Het Wapen van de Zijpe inn, just across the bridge.

• The blue route runs along the sheltered Ruigeweg to ’t Ananas, a traditional Dutch farmhouse built in the shape of a cheese cover, dating from 1900 in the small Ananas woodland. It then continues past the new pumping station on the Noordhollandsch Canal and along the former towpath to the Stolpen–Kolhorn Canal at the drawbridge, returning along the grass dyke. Dogs are not allowed on part of the route. 

• The green route crosses the Groote Sloot on the old tram bridge, passes the former tram station at Schagerbrug (now a house, J.A. de Boerstraat 9), and continues into a new water storage area. It returns along an old West Frisian sea dyke.

• The red route follows the green route for part of the way, then returns past the former town hall on the Schagerweg (partly still the Zijper Museum).