Dunes – Sylt’s mountains

Sandy attractions: Kampen’s dunes are unique. And the Uwe dunes, Sylt’s highest point for a complete all-island view lies in the middle of Kampen.

When nature plays with sand in Sylt, it produces dunes. The Uwe Dunes in Kampen, the highest “mountain” on the island, also have had an illustrious choice of name.
A fascinating natural phenomenon, brutally simplified for better understanding: it is called a dune structure. The ingredients that go to form it are a long period of time, sand and wind, perhaps a few tufts of grass or a small but resistant plant, a pile of stones or a small rock. The wind has been whirling the sand for centuries and continues to do so. The sand continued to hang onto small obstacles and a sandy mountain grew and grew with time and become a dune. Two types of dune can be distinguished: brown dunes, covered with berries and brown herbaceous heath and in front, with direct access to the beach, white dunes on or in which grow sea oats or sea holly.

Wide parts of the Sylt and Kampen dunes are now a nature conservation area. They can only be entered by well-trodden paths or the characteristic wooden footbridges as “protecting the dunes is protecting the island” as the old saying goes. But whoever tramps through the dunes inflicts a wound on it almost with every step, which the next hefty squall grabs and drags away. Sand storms break out and the dune almost starts to roam and move east because of the predominantly westerly direction of the wind. A phenomenon that’s best explained by the legendary giant wandering dunes in front of List. To prevent these sand storms, the white dunes were planted with sea oats and brushwood “safety fences” were placed at the foot of the dune. As the sea and wind continuously eat away at the island, Sylt has to fight for every inch of land.

The Uwe Dune
The highest point on the entire island, it looks down on Kampen: The Uwe Dune rises a proud 52.5 meters and was named after a Sylt native Uwe Jens Lornsen (1793 - 1838). The Keitum native, who the island is proud of, was a jurist and freedom fighter who fought for human rights and freedom of thought. He was also a government official and for a short time towards the end of his life was a governor of Sylt. He travelled all over the world and while in exile in brazil exile wrote the "Union constitution of Denmark and Schleswig-Holsteins". In 1838 he took his own life on Lake Geneva. Today he is considered an illustrious guiding intellectual force of the modern constitutional state. A 109 step wooden step structure leads to the viewing platform on the Uwe Dunes where binoculars provide the perfect island overview with a spectacular all-round view rounding it all off. Sometimes, so children in Kampen say, you can ”look left and even see as far as England". And nearly always "right" as far as Denmark.