Ees: Hiking, Cycling and Village History

Ees offers opportunities for hiking, cycling, golf and discovering village history. The village borders directly on Boswachterij Exloo. When planning your trip, you can distinguish between routes by landscape, length and starting point; the historical features add a perspective on the village’s development to these activities.

Hiking through forest and heathland and across the Hondsrug

The Dennebos hiking route leads through Boswachterij Exloo and combines coniferous and deciduous forest with open heathland and drifting sand. If you pay particular attention to landscape features while hiking, you will find several different elements along the same route.

The Zevenheuveltjes route also leads through Boswachterij Exloo, along the Hondsrug. Another option is “In het Spoor van de Mammoet”: this hiking route is 5.5 kilometres long and leads to various areas, including Buinerveld and Boswachterij Odoorn-Exloo on the Hondsrug. It is marked with white square signs showing an arrow and a mammoth.

The routes have different focal points: Dennebos features forest, heathland and drifting sand, while the description of Zevenheuveltjes mentions the Hondsrug and Boswachterij. “In het Spoor van de Mammoet” gives a specific route length and leads to several named areas. The 5.5 kilometres refers to this hiking route; it is a distance, not a time estimate.

Cycling and golf

The 14-kilometre Ees–Exloo cycling route runs through Boswachterij Exloo and between the villages of Ees and Exloo. It is another way to explore the landscape between the two places by bicycle. Its length and course provide a clear guide for planning your trip.

You can start the Exloo mountain biking route from either of two starting points in Ees: at Carpool Ees on Schoolstraat, 9536 Ees, or at Land van Bartje Ees, Buinerweg 8, 9536 PG Ees. Both starting points are in Ees; the addresses help you identify the one you have chosen.

Country Golf Ees is an 18-hole par-3 golf course where everyone is welcome, from beginners to professionals. The course has a putting green for practising your putting. So, alongside hiking and cycling, golf is another activity to choose from.

Village history and cultural landscape

Ees developed in the Middle Ages as an esdorp (a village built on a raised area of land) along an old route between Coevorden and Groningen. This historical development is one of the village’s defining features and adds a perspective on its past to today’s opportunities for hiking, cycling and golf.

At the junction of Dorpsstraat and Schoolstraat is a brink, which over time has been landscaped as a planted village green. Near Ees is also the Zuidesch, where a remnant of a tree hedge has been preserved. The brink and the tree hedge represent different elements of the local and cultural landscape: a landscaped village green at a road junction, and a surviving landscape feature near Ees.

Whether you first look at a particular hiking route, a cycling trip, golf or the village’s history when planning your trip, Ees offers a range of concrete options. The routes mentioned differ in landscape, length and starting points; you can take these details into account when choosing what suits your planned stay.

Discover more destinations: Drouwen, Drouwenermond, Buinen, Bronneger, Borger, Tweede Exloërmond, Exloo, Odoorn.

For the full travel overview: Borger-Odoorn.