Starting Point Tuitjenhorn

Tuitjenhorn originated as a long ridge of dwelling mounds or ‘wallen’, built up since the early Middle Ages using clay and seaweed. The mounds were connected by footpaths and by a creek bank raised to form a quay. From here, the surrounding raised peat bog was drained from west to east and brought into cultivation in small fields. After the Middle Ages, the land subsided as the peat compacted and water levels rose, creating true waterlogged polders. Farming shifted to livestock, and traditional Dutch farmhouses built in the shape of a cheese cover became common. Around 1900, horticulture was introduced and the farming population grew: the linear village along the Selschardijk and Dorpsstraat lengthened. Alongside the traditional farmhouses, houses for people of private means, labourers’ cottages, market gardeners’ houses, sheds for conical cabbage and similar crops and cold stores were built. After the war, new housing estates were added: Tuitjenhorn gradually merged with neighbouring hamlets and villages, especially Warmenhuizen.

• The orange Buitenplaats Route runs along the old Selschardijk in the hamlet of Zijbelhuizen towards Eenigenburg. It continues along a farm track at the De Buitenplaats farm campsite and through the attractive northern fork of Warmenhuizen: De Fuik (formerly a dead end) and the Oostwal.

• The blue Midgard Route passes through green areas in the village, past old hamlets such as the Kerkbuurt and the Kalverdijk, and includes a circular walk through the park of Midgard, an anthroposophical residential and working community, with a shop and outdoor terrace. The route is waymarked in both directions with blue arrows.