Discover the Hoge Berg

The Hoge Berg was formed in the Saale glaciation, the penultimate ice age which covered part of our country with ice about 140,000 years ago. The Berg (mountain) is the highest point of a so-called ‘boulder clay moraine’ which lies across Texel from Den Hoorn to Oosterend. The Saale glaciation was the last period in time in which Scandinavian land ice flowed into our regions. The ice front came up to the line of Texel, Wieringen, Gaasterland, Urk, Steenwijk and Coevorden. Along that front, deposits of river sand, river clay and boulders were pushed up by the ice to form moraines.

Boulder clay moraine

The boulder clay moraine still rises out of the landscape and is between five to fifteen metres high. From the ferry, you can see the Hoge Berg hill. In past times, these heights provided protection against rising seawater. This was mainly in the Middle Ages. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, various storm surges flooded much of the low-lying peatland and salt marshes in the Wadden area. It’s therefore no coincidence that the older villages on the island are all built on the higher lying moraine.

Coastline development

The Texel moraine has greatly influenced the development of the Dutch coastline. A moraine creates a collection point for persistent materials. Sea currents transported river sand to the north. That sand was deposited south of the collecting point as a long beach ridge and in this way formed the rather concave coastline of Holland. Past the collection point, this beach ridge curved towards the east due to vortices in the sea currents. A beach ridge was also created there but this was later breached in many places by storm surges. The result was a long row of Wadden islands stretching from the Netherlands to Denmark.

Landscape reserve

The core of the Texel moraine is landscape reserve the Hoge Berg, with its gently rolling pastures, characteristic Texel turf walls, sheep barns and drinking pools. These turf walls have served as borders between plots of land for centuries. They were made of grass sods, filled in with sand. Farmers in the area now receive countryside subsidies to preserve the landscape.