Terschelling (; ; Terschelling dialect: ''Schylge'') is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

and an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

in the northern

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, one of the

West Frisian Islands The West Frisian Islands (, ; ) are a chain of islands in the North Sea off the Dutch coast, along the edge of the Wadden Sea. They continue further east as the German East Frisian Islands and are part of the Frisian Islands. From west to eas ...

. It is situated between the islands of

Vlieland (; ) is a municipality and island in the northern Netherlands. The municipality of Vlieland is the second most sparsely populated municipality in the Netherlands, after Schiermonnikoog. Vlieland is one of the West Frisian Islands, lying in t ...

and

Ameland Ameland (; ) is a municipality and one of the West Frisian Islands off the north coast of the Netherlands. It consists mostly of sand dunes and is the third major island of the West Frisians. It neighbours islands Terschelling to the west a ...

. Wadden Islanders are known for their resourcefulness in using anything and everything that washes ashore. With few trees to use for timber, most of the farms and barns are built with masts recovered from shipwrecks. The islands are surrounded by shipwrecks, and even today many containers wash ashore that have blown off the decks of

container ships A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermodal ...

in the North Sea. The main source of income on Terschelling is tourism. There is some agriculture, but a large part of the island has become a nature reserve. Terschelling is well known for the yearly

Oerol Festival Oerol () is a cultural festival on the island of Terschelling in the Netherlands that is held annually in June. The ten-day festival is focused on live, public theatre as well as music and visual arts. This festival was founded in 1981 by Joop Mu ...

during which theatre performances are played throughout the island, making use of its landscape and nature. Terschelling can be reached by

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

from the mainland Frisian town Harlingen and in summer from

by high-speed

catamaran A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a watercraft with two parallel hull (watercraft), hulls of equal size. The wide distance between a catamaran's hulls imparts stability through resistance to rolling and overturning; no ballast is requi ...

History

The island in its current shape formed in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

from a sandy area called De Schelling in the west and the original island Wexalia in the east. The name Wexalia, Wuxalia, or Wecsile is the medieval name of eastern Terschelling. However, this name disappeared at the end of the Middle Ages. The last appearance of the name Wexalia is in a treaty between Folkerus Reijner Popma, then ruler of Terschelling, with king

Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

of England in 1482. The oldest traces of civilization on Terschelling date from around 850, when a small wooden church was built on a hill near Seeryp or Stryp (Striep). This hill was later used as a burial ground and is known as the "Strieperkerkhof". Historically, tensions existed between the inhabitants of West-Terschelling, with its strong orientation towards the sea, and the more agriculturally oriented inhabitants of East-Terschelling. In 1612 this led to the division of the island into independent political entities, West-Terschelling and East-Terschelling. Only after the French occupation at the start of the 19th century was Terschelling again united as one entity. The Dutch navigator

Willem Barentsz Willem Barentsz (; – 20 June 1597), anglicized as William Barents or Barentz, was a Dutch Republic, Dutch navigator, cartographer, and Arctic explorer. Barentsz went on three expeditions to the far north in search for a Northern Sea Route, N ...

was born on Terschelling around 1550. In 1666 West-Terschelling was ransacked by the English. The English fleet had originally planned to attack the Dutch merchant fleet which was moored before the coast of

, the next island to the west. When the Dutch vessels retreated towards Terschelling, the English followed, destroyed 150 Dutch vessels, and landed in the harbour of West Terschelling. The town was burnt to the ground by the English on this occasion which would become known as "

Holmes's Bonfire Holmes's Bonfire was a Raid (military), raid on the Vlie estuary in the Netherlands, executed by the English Fleet during the Second Anglo-Dutch War on 19 and 20 August 1666 New Style (9 and 10 August Old Style). The attack, named after the comma ...

" after the English admiral Sir Robert Holmes. The

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Wednesday 5 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old London Wall, Roman city wall, while also extendi ...

in the very same year was considered by some to have been God's retribution. The next year, in 1667, the Dutch under command of De Ruyter executed a retaliatory expedition, and dealt the English navy a heavy blow at the

Raid on the Medway The Raid on the Medway, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in June 1667, was a successful attack conducted by the Dutch navy on English warships laid up in the fleet anchorages off Chatham Dockyard and Gillingham in the county of Kent. At th ...

(also known as the Battle of Chatham), in effect ending the

Second Anglo-Dutch War The Second Anglo-Dutch War, began on 4 March 1665, and concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Breda (1667), Treaty of Breda on 31 July 1667. It was one in a series of Anglo-Dutch Wars, naval wars between Kingdom of England, England and the D ...

. In 1799, HMS ''Lutine'', a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

frigate loaded with British

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

, sank on the western Terschelling coast (was erroneously quoted in the lemma on Texel) in a storm. Her wreck shifted in the sands; despite several intensive, well-financed searches, only a few treasures have been found. A beaker made from a silver bar is displayed in the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unit ...

at Greenwich. Her bell was recovered and is now in the headquarters of

Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is a insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gover ...

, where it is tolled before announcing important news. Until 1942 Terschelling, like Vlieland, was part of the province of

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

Language

On the island of Terschelling both Dutch, the national language of the Netherlands, and Frisian are spoken. Historically, Frisian dialects have dominated on the western and eastern sides of the island while a Dutch dialect called Midslands has been the main language of Midsland and the surrounding area at the center of the island. However, the use of the three dialects is on the decline, and all three are slowly being replaced by the standard Dutch language.

Cranberries

The island is known for being one of only two Wadden islands where cranberries grow, the other being the island of Vlieland. In 1840, a barrel of cranberries, apparently packed by sailors as an antiscorbutic, washed ashore on the island's coast, and the islanders cultivated them for their own sailors. The cranberries, finding the environment favorable, established themselves on the island. Nowadays, the cranberry fields cover or . The cranberries are mainly sold to tourists and used by the island's restaurants and bakeries.

Population centres

Areas in Terschelling are the following: (Standard West Frisian names in brackets) Barents

Notable people

* Bauck Poppema (died 1501), legendary Dutch heroine *

(c. 1550 – 1597), Dutch navigator, cartographer and Arctic explorer; the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

was named after him. * Frank I. Kooyman (1880–1963), Dutch hymnwriter * Hessel van der Kooij (born 1955), Dutch singer * Joris Voest (born 1995), Dutch professional footballer

Gallery

File:Terschelling_040.JPG, the isle of Terschelling File:Terschelling 155.JPG, Shop in Terschelling File:Terschelling_071.JPG, the isle of Terschelling File:Terschelling_042.JPG, Terschelling, Commandeurstraat

References

External links

*
Tourist office website
{{Authority control Municipalities of Friesland Former municipalities of North Holland Islands of Friesland West Frisian Islands Ramsar sites in the Netherlands