Råbjerg Mile – the largest migrating dune in Northern Europe

The History of Råbjerg Mile

Throughout a large part of the 16^th and 17^th century the region around Skagen, as well as many other places along the Danish west coast, were plagued by drifting sand. The result of these sand drifts was one enormous Dune, which today is known as Råbjerg Mile, that slowly moved across the land.

The dune has brought a great deal of destruction in the cause of its lifetime and has destroyed large parts of the farmland as well as buried roads and chased the local residents out of their homes. Den Tilsandede Kirke (The Sandburied Church) still stands as a memento of a time where many houses and farmsteads disappeared under the sand. In the end of the 19^th century the Danish state accepted responsibility for the region and promised to improve the infrastructure. What followed was a successful attempt to reforest the area, in order to hinder the continuous drifting of the sands, as well as the establishment of a railway line and a road from Aalbæk to Skagen.