Epe – De Dellen

De Dellen near Epe is a 19th century estate that owes its fame mainly to the famous meteorologist Buys Ballot. He turned the vast heathlands into a park-like estate with a variety of forests, avenues and heathlands. The estate was the first purchase of the newly established Geldersch Landschap in 1929. Daendels The Dellen estate […]

De Dellen near Epe is a 19th century estate that owes its fame mainly to the famous meteorologist Buys Ballot. He turned the vast heathlands into a park-like estate with a variety of forests, avenues and heathlands. The estate was the first purchase of the newly established Geldersch Landschap in 1929.

Daendels

The Dellen estate was built by General Herman Daendels, who was very active during the turbulent French-Batavian period in the Netherlands. But in 1803 he had fallen into disgrace with the government and retired to the Veluwe. The Batavian Republic gave him a large piece of heathland near Epe. Daendels built a country house there and started reclaiming the heathland for arable farming and sheep farming. That was not a success. By the way, Daendels was reinstated after a few years and even became Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies.

Buys Ballot

The land was sold in 1851 to the physicist, chemist and meteorologist Christophorus Buys Ballot. He was best known for his Buys Ballot Law, which indicates the relationship between wind and air pressure. There is also a crater on the moon named after him. Buys Ballot planted large-scale forests of Scots pine, a tree that grows quickly and is therefore suitable for the production of wood. Buys Ballot’s son Cornelis expanded the estate by creating a landscape park with wide avenues and exotic tree species. Cornelis is also buried on the estate, together with his dog Pipo.

Gelderland Landscape

In 1929, Geldersch Landschap bought the largest part of the estate (362 hectares!) from Frederik Buys Ballot. In 2007, Geldersch Landschap purchased another part of the original estate. Café-guesthouse De Dellen, also known as the Meinhuis, once stood on this site. That building was demolished in 1968, but the remains of the associated, popular boat pond have been recovered and made recognizable.