A large glacial hill landscape and coastal heathland on northern Samsø, protecting rare dry calcareous grassland.
Nordby Bakker
Nordby Bakker is a Natura 2000 protected landscape located at the northern end of the Danish island of Samsø, in the central Kattegat. It is built around a prominent terminal moraine formed at the edge of the Great Belt glacier at the close of the last ice age, with the highest point, Ballebjerg, reaching about 64 meters above sea level. The area stretches from the headland of Issehoved in the north along the northwestern coast to Asmindør Hage, and includes roughly 628 hectares of varied coastal and inland terrain.
The defining feature of Nordby Bakker is one of Denmark's largest continuous dry grassland complexes, covering approximately 500 hectares, together with coastal cliffs, lime-rich beach ridges, dunes, and several small nutrient-rich lakes. Because Samsø receives comparatively little rainfall, the warm and dry hillsides support a flora rich in plant species that are rare elsewhere in Denmark, along with several red-listed insects tied to the open calcareous grasslands.
The site is jointly managed by the Danish Nature Agency and Samsø Municipality under the European Habitats Directive, with the first formal conservation protections dating back to 1949. Beyond its biodiversity value, Nordby Bakker is a defining element of the northern Samsø landscape, where glacial history, dry grassland ecosystems, and Baltic coastal scenery meet.
