The Dal van de Groote Beerze offers a 3.6-kilometre walking route, while the fens of the Landschotse Heide between Middelbeers and Westelbeers provide a second connection with nature. The Mariakapel and Kamp Baarschot add historical themes. If you are looking for a hotel in Westelbeers, you can plan your stay around the landscape and outdoor activities, or around architectural and commemorative history.

Heathland and the Beerze Valley

The Landschotse Heide covers 239 hectares and is part of the Natura 2000 network. Its location between Middelbeers and Westelbeers places it within the region’s landscape. The Groote Beerze River also shapes the area’s geography: at Westelbeers, it crosses the north Brabant cover-sand ridge.

The Dal van de Groote Beerze is a 298-hectare land management unit operated by Brabants Landschap. It includes several areas in the Groote Beerze valley between Bladel, Hapert, Casteren, Netersel and Westelbeers. The 239 hectares refer to the heathland, while the 298 hectares refer to the management unit in the Beerze Valley. This distinction helps keep the two landscape areas separate rather than treating them as one.

Hiking and cycling

Those who want to explore the valley on foot will find a 3.6-kilometre walking route there. For a cycling trip, the “De Brabantse Kempen het stilste stukje Nederland” route offers a different way to experience the landscape: it starts and ends at Eigentijdserf in Westelbeers. The wet pastureland along the cycling route provides food for many birds and other animals. The landscape’s ecological role is therefore also part of what you can experience along the route.

The routes offer different ways to plan your visit: the walking route has a specified length, while the cycling route’s start and finish are both in Westelbeers. If you are mainly interested in nature, you can choose between a walk in the Beerze Valley and a cycling route starting and ending at Eigentijdserf.

Mariakapel and Kamp Baarschot

The Mariakapel in Westelbeers was rebuilt in stone in 1637 after an earlier wooden chapel had been destroyed. It is dedicated to Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van Scherpenheuvel. A small tower and a bell were added in 1937. The rebuilding and the later structural addition can thus be understood as two distinct phases in the chapel’s history.

If you plan to use the Mariakapel as a starting point for walks through the surrounding fields and woods, check in advance whether parking and access are currently available. This lets you combine local history with time outdoors without assuming that a particular visit is possible.

A barrack has been preserved on the grounds of Kamp Baarschot as a memorial to the many people who stayed there from the 1930s until the end of the 20th century. Jewish and non-Jewish men were forcibly detained at Kamp Baarschot. After liberation, Kamp Baarschot initially served as a reception centre for people from unsafe areas and for refugees who could not yet return home.

A distinctive history of the heathland

The fens of the Landschotse Heide also have a history of military training. A harbour and “dummy boats” were recreated there for training purposes, to help bomb-aiming instructors practise bombing Allied harbours and ships. The broad earth banks were 50 metres long and 7 metres wide and were surrounded by a ditch. These measurements give a concrete sense of the unusual use of the heathland without assigning it an unsupported date.

Discover more destinations: Oost West En Middelbeers, Oirschot.

Go to the main travel overview: Oirschot.