The Oak at the Hertekop

roughly 225 to 275 years, from the register's planting band of 1750 to 1800Pedunculate Oak

Pedunculate OakNobody has published a photograph of this tree under a licence we can use. Send us yours and it goes on this page.

Take me there Get the app

See the walk past Amersfoort's other trees →

Which one is it? The single very heavy old oak at the junction, far thicker than the roadside planting around it.

Everything at this crossroads has been replaced except the tree. It was called the Hertekop after a hunting chalet built here with deer antlers fixed to it. The chalet became an inn. The inn became one of those places everyone in a town knows, where people arranged to meet and where walks and outings started from. Then a southern ring road was laid around Amersfoort, and later joined to a new trunk road running in from Utrecht, and the place changed out of all recognition. The chalet went. What is here now is a slip road off the A28 and a junction of the Arnhemseweg and the Dodeweg. What is also here is an oak the register bands 1750 to 1800, which was already a substantial tree when the chalet was a going concern, and which is the oldest living thing in Amersfoort. It is not a beautiful setting and that is exactly the reason to go. Two and a half centuries of a place reorganising itself around a fixed point, and the fixed point is a tree that nobody decided to keep so much as never quite got round to removing. Park on the Dodeweg rather than trying to stop on the Arnhemseweg.

Been here? Worth the visit?

The button above opens directions in your maps app. About 3 km south of Amersfoort station, at the Arnhemseweg and Dodeweg crossing.

Species: Pedunculate Oak (Quercus robur)
Age estimate: roughly 225 to 275 years, from the register's planting band of 1750 to 1800
Location: Beside the A28 slip road at the Arnhemseweg and Dodeweg crossing (Hertekop)
Access: Free. Stands in the verge at a public road junction.
Getting there: About 3 km south of Amersfoort station, at the Arnhemseweg and Dodeweg crossing.

Trees nearby

The Copper Beech at the Zonnehofroughly 135 to 145 years, from the register's planting band of 1880 to 1890 · 2.2 km away The Plane of the Snouckaertlaanroughly 185 to 195 years, from the register's planting band of 1830 to 1840 · 2.3 km away The Catalpa on the City Wallroughly 125 to 135 years, from the register's planting band of 1890 to 1900 · 2.4 km away

Curious what else is standing in Amersfoort? See all 7 remarkable ancient trees in Amersfoort or find out what the oldest tree in Amersfoort is. It is a Pedunculate Oak; see every pedunculate oak on the site.

Collect the trees you stand in front of

Ticking this one off, walks past several more, and your collection growing city by city: that is the Ancient Trees app.

Get the app

We could use your help.

This page was researched from a distance. If you know this tree, you know things we do not: the species, the age, the size, whether the photo shows the right tree, or that it is gone. Every field on this page can be corrected.

Correct a detail on this page Suggest another tree