The Kronheden Nature Hostel

A long time ago, just after the First World War, a man got off the train at Ulfborg station in West Jutland and walked to- wards the moors and forests. In those days there weren’t any wolves or too many deer, but there was a lot of sandy soil and children in the scattered farmhouses. In spring and summer the children worked the land with their parents. Only in winter were they allowed to go to school. The man was to become their “winter teacher”. He literally moved into the school, where part of the building was the teacher’s home. A few years later, a female teacher, Thyra, moved into another room in the school. After 16 years they gave up and got married. Until they retired in 1957, they taught generations of children about the world around them. The faraway world of foreign countries and rivers with exotic names, but also the archaeological and botanical treasures hidden right under their noses.

The school closed in the 1960s but continued as a summer camp, mainly for schoolchildren, run by a group of teachers, all volunteers. The idea was the same as that of the Kaae’s: To give children a chance to open their eyes and hearts to the nature around them, because knowing and loving nature makes it easier to protect and preserve it.

Today, the summer camp still exists, but from next year it will coexist with a “nature hostel” for smaller groups or individu- als. Some of us are the children of the original teachers. We grew up here and have a deep affection for the place, the surroundings and the special type of landscape it represents, with the ever-changing colours of the grasses and the flower- ing heather in August when the sandy hills turn purple.

Thanks to the support of the Employee Foundation and the Green Areas and Outdoor Life programme, as well as the support of two other foundations, the old school in the Klausie forest is now being transformed into a modern spring-board for those seeking time in nature. The old building will be completely renovated with modern facilities and a completely new service building with an indoor and outdoor kitchen. The most exciting feature will be the wide wooden staircase at one end of the new building. Where does it lead? Nowhere. Just closer to the stars that shine so clearly here, away from the light pollution. If you bring your own equipment, you can sleep there too, right next to the Milky Way.

Soon, in a nearby beech grove, a brand new, architecturally stunning Douglas fir shelter will be built, also thanks to the Employee Foundation. The timing couldn’t be better. Just 600 metres from the hostel, a national park with 3,600 hectares of forest and moorland is about to open. The wolf has returned. So have the beaver, the crane and all kinds of birds of prey. An old long-distance footpath, the Drivvejen, is being brushed up and will pass just outside the hostel.

We no longer feel so far away, but right in the middle of it all. Just like old Alfred Kaae felt when he got off the train in the middle of nowhere and turned it into the middle of somewhere. Morten Beiter

Project name: Nature hostel in Kronheden 
Country, location: Denmark, Kronheden 
Applicant: Den Selvejende Institution Kronhede Lejrskole
VKR Group company: DOVISTA A/S, Ringkøbing, Denmark
Under development, opening planned for Dec 2024