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Hermannsburg: Grand Heath Tour in Suedheide Nature Park (day tour, 39 km)


©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/MARKUS TIEMANN
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/Dominik Ketz
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/MARKUS TIEMANN
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/MARKUS TIEMANN
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/MARKUS TIEMANN
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/Markus Tiemann
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/Dominik Ketz
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/MARKUS TIEMANN
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/MARKUS TIEMANN
©MARKUS TIEMANN, MARKUS TIEMANN LUENEBURG
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/MARKUS TIEMANN
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/MARKUS TIEMANN
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/Dominik Ketz
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/Dominik Ketz
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/Dominik Ketz
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/Alex Kassner
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/Dominik Ketz
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/Dominik Ketz
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/Dominik Ketz
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/MARKUS TIEMANN
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH/MARKUS TIEMANN
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH / Markus Tiemann
©Lüneburger Heide GmbH / Markus Tiemann
©Markus Tiemann/Lüneburger Heide GmbH



The "Grand Heath Tour" combines the most scenic heath
areas of Suedheide nature park. Numerous sights line the route and are well
worth exploring. This cycle tour through Lueneburg Heath is especially
beautiful during the month of August when the heather is in full bloom.

This magnificent cycle tour curves from Misselhorn Heath over the
Great Heath, Schmarbeck Heath and the juniper forest through Fassberg and past
Hausselberg. This unique countryside is characterised by rolling hills, small
valleys and magnificent heath areas.

Information boards along the way tell you how the heaths and
woodlands came into being over the course of many centuries.

Feel and enjoy the tranquillity of nature.

How our ancestors lived from and with the heath

Growing crops in the nutrient-poor soil of Lueneburg Heath led to
the development of heath farming, a form of agriculture. Heath areas were
shared as a source of food for moorland sheep. Some areas were reserved for sod
plugging, the practice of tearing up the top layer of heath and humus for use
as litter in the sheep pens. When combined with animal droppings it turned into
a valuable fertiliser that improved the condition of nutrient-poor fields and
enabled the cultivation of buckwheat and rye.

The German term "abplaggen", meaning drudgery, was
coined by heath farmers

Sod plugging was physically strenuous work that was performed with
a “twicke”. The densely rooted topsoil was stripped to a depth of 4 to 6 cm.

Heath becomes woodland and then heath again

At the middle of the 19th century, Lueneburg Heath consisted of
huge swathes of heath interspersed with patches of sand. The woodlands had
virtually disappeared due to tree-felling and pasturing. 

Mineral fertiliser was introduced in 1870, heralding the end of
heath farming as it was no longer profitable. Earnings from sheep-herding
declined heavily, as did the sale of sheep’s wool due to the growing dominance
of cotton. 

Heath areas were reforested mainly with spruce trees, turning
Lueneburg Heath into Lueneburg Forest.

But a rethinking process began at the start of the 20th century.
Many people began discovering the beauty of nature and especially of the heath
countryside. The remnants of this unique flora and fauna and the remains of the
former cultural landscape that had survived since the times of heath farming
were conserved and returned to their former state. 

Successful examples include the heath villages of Schmarbeck,
Oberohe, Niederohe and Gerdehaus and the beautiful expanses of heath at
Schillohsberg and Misselhorn Heath.

Today,
it is once again our four-legged conservationists - the moorland sheep - who
maintain the heath’s healthy condition.

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