Discover Ugchelen: Hiking and Cultural Landscapes

There are several options for hiking in Ugchelen: short walks, forests and heathland, or the history of sprengen and watermills. The routes themselves also provide different points of reference for planning. “Drie Sprengen” has a precisely stated distance, the Ugcheler Markepad passes through several types of landscape, and “Hoog Buurlo – Ugchelse Bos” is described as a longer hiking route. This lets you choose based on whether a stated distance, a particular landscape, or a cultural and historical connection matters most to you.

Hiking from ’t Leesten

The ’t Leesten information centre is located in Bospaviljoen ’t Leesten. Short walks and several hiking routes through forests and heathland start at the information centre. The ’t Leesten nature area lies on the edge of Ugchelen. Short walks and hiking routes are therefore presented as different options from a named starting point, with forests and heathland providing the routes’ landscape setting.

A specific start and end point is given for the archaeological walk “op pad met Moerman”: it begins and ends at the Het Leesten car park, Hoenderloseweg 191, 7339 GG Ugchelen. You can follow the route using the IVN Natuur app. If you are planning this particular walk, you can note the car park’s full address as a reference point for the start and finish.

Choose routes by distance and landscape

The “Drie Sprengen” walk is 5.5 kilometres long. It starts on the outskirts of Ugchelen and passes the sources of three sprengen. The stated distance and the springs offer two concrete points of reference when choosing this tour: you can take the distance into account while also focusing on the waterways that give the route its name.

The Ugcheler Markepad takes a different approach. It passes through heathland and eschland, along sprengen, and through forests. The longer “Hoog Buurlo – Ugchelse Bos” route starts at De Cantharel and follows wide and narrow forest paths. It also passes a large, usually quiet heathland with beautiful long-distance views, and finishes in an area of drifting sand. While “Drie Sprengen” offers a precise distance as a reference, these two routes focus on changing landscape features. This lets you weigh up a route with a stated distance against a described sequence of forests, heathland and other landscapes.

Sprengen and the history of mills

Sprengen are also part of Ugchelen’s cultural landscape. In the mid-19th century, the village had eleven craft paper mills. On the outskirts of Ugchelen, the landscape shows how, since the Middle Ages, groundwater and seepage water were channelled to a watermill through dug sprengen. This connects the history of the landscape with the use of water: the sprengen were part of a system that carried water to a mill.

The “Langs Beken en Sprengen” route from Ugchelen leads to places that recall the history of Apeldoorn and the neighbouring villages. From the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th century, streams and sprengen, with the watermills located along them, played a major role in economic activity. The course of the Winkewijert can also be described in detail: its sources, or spreng heads, lie in a small wood south of Ugchelen. From there, the spreng runs northeast through the De Bouwhof district and past the former Winkewijert mill site. This adds a specific place and direction to the general history of the mills.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Uddel, Hoenderloo, Beekbergen, Apeldoorn, Nieuw-Milligen, Beemte Broekland, Loenen, Hoog-Soeren.

Back to the main travel guide: Apeldoorn.