Nijlande: Esch Village and Drenthe Cultural Landscape

Nijlande is a small esch village southwest of Rolde. Its local history combines agriculture with traces from very different periods; the surrounding landscape also has its own names and features. Arable and pastureland, an esch and a moor lake can be distinguished by their location. The Roldertoren Route also passes through Nijlande, linking it to a wider regional context. If you are planning a stay, you can explore both the village itself and the cultural landscape along the route.

Nijlande as an agricultural esch village

Nijlande has always had an agricultural character. It is a small esch village southwest of Rolde. The road running through the village towards Eldersloo and Ekehaar also helps with orientation. These connections link the village’s layout to named directions and places in the surrounding area.

Landscape names around Nijlande

West of Nijlande lies the Nijlanderveld, an area of arable and pastureland that stretches as far as the Amer or Deurzerdiep. South of the village, between Eldersloo and the Amerdiep, lies the Nijlanderbroek, a pasture area. To the east are the Nijlanderesch and Kikkertsveen; the latter is a moor lake. The directions help distinguish the landscape names: arable and pastureland to the west, a pasture area to the south, and an esch and a moor lake to the east. Around Nijlande, these named landscape features and land uses come into view, rather than a single, uniform backdrop.

Traces from different periods

Flint concentrations found near Nijlande point to the presence of a people of the Hamburg culture more than 14,000 years ago. It is thought that Nijlande originated in the late Middle Ages as a kampontginning, a small-scale land reclamation. Farmers from Rolde are said to have begun cultivating sandy soils on a small scale at the edge of their communal territory. This interpretation links the settlement’s development to the small-scale use of the land and its location at the edge of the communal territory.

Later dates also shed light on the agricultural and local history. From 1895, dairy farmers from Nijlande delivered their milk to the Ons Voordeel dairy in Rolde. The road past Nijlande between Rolde and Ekehaar was paved in 1916. These represent two distinct aspects: milk deliveries to a dairy in Rolde and the paving of a road between Rolde and Ekehaar. Together with the archaeological finds and the village’s presumed medieval origins, they reveal several clearly distinct layers of history.

The Roldertoren Route and the wider region

The Roldertoren Route passes through Ekehaar, Nijlande and the Deurzerdiep on its way back towards Rolde. In the area around Nijlande, it runs through the Drentsche Aa area in central and northern Drenthe, one of the last largely intact river valleys in the Netherlands. The region encompasses an ancient Drenthe cultural landscape of meadows, woods, hedgerows, fields, heathland, juniper thickets, esch villages, megalithic tombs and country estates. The landscape descriptions answer different questions about orientation: where are the named areas around Nijlande, and what wider region does the Roldertoren Route pass through? If you are looking for a hotel for a trip to Nijlande, you can consider whether your stay will focus mainly on the village’s history and local landscape, or also on this wider context.

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View the main travel overview: Aa en Hunze.