Denmark's largest heathland, a state-owned military training landscape of international conservation value.
Borris Hede
Borris Hede is a vast heathland and protected natural area in central-western Denmark, recognized as the country's largest contiguous heath landscape. Designated as Natura 2000 site number 67, the area functions simultaneously as a habitat zone and a bird protection area, covering thousands of hectares of sandy outwash plain shaped by glacial meltwater during the last ice age.
The landscape is dominated by dry and wet heath, but also includes bogs, fens, lakes, streams, juniper scrub, oak thickets, and conifer plantations, creating a mosaic of open and lightly wooded habitats. Owned by the Danish state and used by the Armed Forces as a firing range, the central area is largely inaccessible to the public, which has helped preserve its open character and ecological integrity over more than a century.
Borris Hede is of both national and international importance for its landscape values and for its flora and fauna, including rare breeding heathland birds such as golden plover, black-tailed godwit, short-eared owl, and nightjar. Once home to one of Denmark's last remaining great bustard populations, the site remains a cornerstone of Danish heathland conservation.
