Rottumerplaat is a sandbank that lies between the Dutch Wadden Island Schiermonnikoog and the German Wadden Island Borkum. West of Rottumerplaat is still the Simonszand sandbank and east of Rottumerplaat are still Rottumeroog and Zuiderduin. They are all located in the tidal inlet between Schier and Borkum. Rottumerplaat is the most northerly piece of land in the Netherlands. It is part of the Wadden Sea World Heritage Site. The island is not open to the public.
Rottumerplaat between the Wadden Islands Schiermonnikoog and Borkum
- Rottumerplaat
- Lauwers and ?? t Schild
- Walking and Rottum
- Boulder clay
- English grass and sea algae
- Birds on Rottumerplaat
- Seals
- Mussels and cockles
- Surveillance
- Godfried Bomans and Jan Wolkers
- Uninhabited islands and sandbanks in the Wadden Sea
Rottumerplaat
Rottumerplaat is an uninhabited island in the Wadden Sea, between Schiermonnikoog and Borkum. Rottumerplaat lies in the gap between the two Wadden Islands and is geographically positioned in the North Sea. The island lies on the border of the North Sea and Wadden Sea and is part of the Wadden Sea system. It is part of the Wadden Islands archipelago and is part of the Wadden Sea World Heritage. Rottumerplaat has an area of 7 to 8 km². It is therefore three times the size of Rottumeroog. At the beginning of 2000 it measured 10 km², but it seems that the island is stabilizing. Rottumerplaat is part of the Groningen municipality of Eemsmond.
Northwest Plate
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the plate was also called Northwest Plate mentioned.
Lauwers and ?? t Schild
The northernmost piece of land in the Netherlands can be found at Rottumerplaat. The plate is located between two channels, one of which is called the Lauwers and the other ‘t Schild. De Lauwers is located between Rottumerplaat and Schiermonnikoog and ?? t Schild between Rottumerplaat and Rottumeroog.
Walking and Rottum
Around 1600 Rottumeroog was located on the spot where Rottumerplaat now lies. The islands hike and Rottumeroog is now more to the east. Rottumerplaat developed from sandbank to island from 1833. The plate grew on the Kapersplaat and kept getting bigger. Around 1860 the plate was named Noordwestplaat and also Rottumerplaat.
The drift dike built by Rijkswaterstaat encouraged the growth of Rottumerplaat, which also moved from west to east. All Wadden Islands are walking islands. From 1965 to 1985 the island grew to 900 hectares, but since then the island has shrunk again until 1995. Then it grew again. More dunes form on the northwest side and the island is steadily washing up in the east.
Rottumerplaat is part of Rottum, which consists of three parts: Rottumeroog, Rottumerplaat and the Zuiderduintjes.
Boulder clay
Researchers from the Drowned History Foundation found boulder clay at a depth of almost 11 meters. This so-called boulder reef is probably the preservation of the island. This subsoil of an unyielding boulder clay ridge may be the reason why islands continue to emerge above Groningen with a certain tenacity. The land ice of the penultimate ice age deposited the boulder clay there. Rottumerplaat has this base in common with Wieringen, Texel and Borkum. The boulder clay lies on the surface on those three islands. It is a bit deeper under Vlieland and Terschelling.
Work island
Rijkswaterstaat, the manager of the area, wanted to turn Rottumerplaat into a work island. It had to be the Neeltje Jans van de Wadden. A drift dike was constructed in the 1950s to begin the implementation of those plans. At the time there were grand plans to impolder the Wadden Sea and then a lot of work could be done from Rottumerplaat, was the idea of Rijkswaterstaat.
Free game
Rijkswaterstaat carried out coastal management from 1950 to 1990. Active coastal management has been phased out since 1991 and nature has had complete freedom since 2001.
English grass and sea algae
Many plant species can be found on Rottumerplaat. The island is covered with more than a hundred species, including rare and vulnerable. They are mainly salt-loving plants, but freshwater plants also occur on Rottumerplaat. The island is large enough to hold a freshwater bubble. Plants that grow on Rottumerplaat are:
- English grass (vulnerable species);
- English spoon blade (vulnerable species);
- beautiful centaury (freshwater plant);
- yellow heart (vulnerable species and freshwater plant);
- large eelgrass (vulnerable species);
- small eelgrass (vulnerable species);
- sea wormwood (vulnerable species);
- sea breeze.
Birds on Rottumerplaat
Rottumerplaat is an Eldorado for birds. The island is a protected nature reserve and closed to the public all year round. Thus it is at the mercy of the birds. They enjoy the island by resting, foraging and brooding. At the end of the 20th century it was an important breeding area for the sandwich tern, a rare bird in the Netherlands, but unfortunately that bird no longer breeds there. At certain times of the year, the Rottumerplaat is a gathering place for large parts of bird populations of Western European birds.
Birds that can be seen on Rottumeroog:
- shelduck;
- ringed plover;
- pied sandpiper;
- three-toed sandpiper;
- little tern;
- eider;
- knot;
- lesser black-backed gull;
- spoonbill;
- arctic tern;
- pintail;
- bar-tailed godwit;
- oystercatcher;
- Kentish plover;
- common tern;
- curlew;
- herring gull;
- silver plover.
Seals
Rottumerplaat is a resting area and nursery for seals. There are mainly harbor seals, although some gray seals also visit the island. The seals lie there to rest, give birth and suckle there, especially on the southern and eastern part of the island.
Mussels and cockles
On the south side of the plate are mussel and cockle beds. These shellfish and shell banks are important to the Wadden Sea because they filter the water and provide living space for other species. In addition, the shellfish are on the menu of many bird species.
Surveillance
Rottumerplaat is off limits to the public. Yet sometimes people are walking around. These are guards tasked with guarding the area. They stay on the island from the end of April to mid-August. The island is therefore not permanently inhabited, but built on. There are two buildings, where the guards and sometimes also the bird counters and researchers reside. There is also an observation tower on the island, which can be recognized from afar from the sea. The island has a path with a name: the Jan Brandspad, with which the buildings on the island have an address.
Manage and count
The island is managed by Rijkswaterstaat, Staatsbosbeheer and the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality. IMARES and SOVON regularly count the birds and seals and conduct research.
Godfried Bomans and Jan Wolkers
Alone on an island
Rottumerplaat became famous through the stay of Jan Wolkers and Godfried Bomans in July 1971. The writers spent a week all alone on the island in succession. The only lifeline to the mainland was a connection to the VARA radio. Radio man Willem Ruis had daily contact with both men. Noise was in a hotel in Warffum. The radio program was called Alone on an Island and became a media spectacle. In 2016 a book was published about this that also ?? Only on an island ?? hot.
It was special that Jan Wolkers enjoyed it and that Godfried Bomans became confused by the loneliness. He died not even that long after the island stay, in December 1971. The stay laid a thick foundation for Wolkers’ love for the Wadden Sea. He later settled with his family on the Wadden island of Texel.
Wolkers wrote about his adventure, Greetings from Rottumerplaat. The book was published in 1971. Bomans wrote ?? On Voyage around the World and on Rottumerplaat. ?? The book was published posthumously in 1972.
Nienke Denekamp wrote the book ?? Alone on an island ?? about the adventure of both men and the origin of the radio program. ??
Alone on an island
- ISBN / EAN: 9789047619413
- Price: ?? 24.95
- January 2016
Uninhabited islands and sandbanks in the Wadden Sea
The Rottumerplaat is one of ten uninhabited islands and sandbanks in the Wadden Sea.
All ten in a row, from west to east:
- Raging Bol;
- Ledge;
- Griend;
- Robbenbank;
- Reef;
- Engelsmanplaat;
- Simonszand;
- Rottumerplaat;
- Rottumeroog;
- Zuiderduin.
Rottumerplaat
a. Rottumerplaat
B.. Schiermonnikoog
C.. Borkum
D.. Rottumeroog
E. North Sea
F.. Waddenzee
G.. Warffum
H.. Lauwers
I.. Shield