Turn left off the road from Anloo to Anderen, just before the small fen called Gagelveen, and follow a sandy path until you reach a barrier blocking your way. A 10-minute walk brings you to an open place in the woods and a splendid hunebed. Four lintels rest neatly on top of ten side- and two keystones. Sadly the fifth lintel on the westernmost side is missing. There is still one portal stone (gatepost). Van Giffen checked the location of the second using a plumb line.
The tomb stands in a very peaceful spot; you will usually find yourself alone with the hunebed; if you meet anyone they will be cyclists, horse-riders or walkers.
Because of its remote location, this hunebed is rarely visited by tourists. And yet it has much to recommend it. Walk a little further into this wood and you will come to the Pinetum Ter Borgh, an area of about 2.2 hectares which has been laid out as a collection of conifers. This is a specialist arboretum which contains about 500 species of conifers, mainly non-native and cultivated.
The famous Professor Van Giffen visited the hunebed in 1918. Apart from one of the original lintels, Van Giffen judged this hunebed to be complete and “in a very good state”. Remains of the original covering mound could still clearly be seen. In 1871 the Province of Drenthe acquired ownership of the hunebed as a gift.
(Source: Atlas of “De Hunebedden in Nederland”, Dr.A.E.van Giffen, 1925)
For more information about this and other hunebeds in Drenthe see http://www.hunebedden.nl/frntpage.htm .
Also (in Dutch only) at www.hunebeddeninfo.nl
Photography: Davado
Text: Hans Meijer
Translation Alun Harvey
