Gitstapper Mill

Details: Parent Category: Limburg province; Category: Limburg - Walks; Last Updated: 06 October 2020; Hits: 622

The hike starts at the Visitor Center National Park De Meinweg and goes through a part of the National Park De Meinweg and then returns along the German side of the Rode Beek.

Gitstapper Mill

Gitstapper Mill

Distance: 17 km

Duration: 4h00

Grade: Moderate

Gps track: Yes

Route description: Yes

Type: Circular walk

Height gain: No information available

Way mark: See PDF route description

Wheelchair: Unsuitable

Dog: Not allowed

Both areas are part of the German-Dutch border park Maas-Swalm-Nette. The Meinweg is a unique terraced landscape, with steep transitions between the terraces. The terraces were created in the course of tens of thousands of years due to recessing of the Maas and shifts in the earth's crust along the three fault lines that run through the area. One of these fault lines is the well-known Peel Edge Fault. One of the two streams that flow through this area is the Rode Beek, a beautiful meandering stream that originates just across the border in Germany and forms the national border between Vlodrop Station and Vlodrop. There are two water mills along this stream on the German side, the Dalheimer mill and on the Dutch side, the Gitstapper mill, from which the name of this walk is derived. The paddle wheel of the Gitstapper mill is just on the Dutch side. The walking tour follows a section of the Iron Rhine, a disused railway line. Initially the intention was to dig a canal. Later on, a railway line was preferred, hence the name Iron Rhine. Furthermore, one passes a chapel with cemetery of a former Franciscan monastery complex. In 2012 Staatsbosbeheer renovated the dilapidated chapel.