Discover De Rips

De Rips has two especially tangible themes: the nature of Stippelberg and the history of the village. For your stay, this means choosing between hiking trails, landscape features, and specific historic sites. If you are looking for a hotel in De Rips, these highlights can help you plan excursions based on your interests in nature or history.

Nature and hiking trails at Stippelberg

Stippelberg is a large nature area near De Rips. Numerous hills in the forest were formed by drifting sand, creating dunes. Avenues near the country house and rhododendrons are among the landscape’s other features. In this varied area, you may encounter or hear deer and woodpeckers.

The Landgoed Stippelberg hiking route near De Rips is 7.5 km long and passes along stately avenues near the country house, with sightlines and views over a herb-rich meadow. By comparison, the Ripse Boswandelroute is longer, at about 11 km; it leads through forest and nature areas. The routes therefore differ both in length and in the landscape experiences described.

Beestenveld also offers a distinctive landscape feature: since 1979, more modern forest management there has led to greater diversity in flora and fauna.

Landscape and local history

The development of the landscape and the village is explored at the Bosmuseum, a hand-built open-air museum made of wood on the edge of the forests of De Rips. Themed panels explain how the area changed from heathland to forest and how the village came into being. Old newspaper photos show the reclamation of the land: first with six oxen, and later with large steam ploughs. The panels and photos thus shed light on both the transformation of the landscape and the history of the village.

Klotterpeel contains the last remains of trenches laid out in a zigzag pattern in 1939, shortly before the Second World War, as part of the Dutch defences. The last surviving sections of the Koordekanaal are also located here; further sections can be found in Beestenveld.

Another historical landmark is the Oude Handwijzer Klotterpeel. Centuries-old sandy roads met at this crossroads. A signpost was already marked there on topographic maps dating from around 1850. The present-day signpost was erected near the original site in 2011 as a lasting memorial.

The war memorial stands on Burgemeester Wijtvlietlaan in De Rips, in the municipality of Gemert-Bakel. It commemorates the crash of a British Air Force Lancaster bomber and Mayor Wijtvliet, who died in a concentration camp.

Buildings and memorial sites

The Church of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque was built in 1965 to a design by L.C. van de Lee. Its unique saddle-shaped roof defines this modern church. De Rips’s built environment also includes distinctive foresters’ houses and larger farms with an unusual architectural style.

Villa Ledeboer was built in 1942 as a house in the woods for the owner and his family to stay in. The fully authentic traditional country house features English and German influences as well as boarded gables. The Kapel Maria van Liefde has a different local origin story: it was built in 1994, following the near-death experience of the woman who lived in the residence in 1990 and her vision of Mary.

Discover more destinations: Elsendorp, Handel, Milheeze, De Mortel, Gemert, Bakel

For the main travel overview: Gemert-Bakel.