The Thy National Park covers an area of 24.3 hectares and stretches from Hanstholm to Agger Tange, along the West Jutland coast. This stretch of coastline with its dunes, sand heaths, dune plantations and lakes is also famed for the natural phenomenon of the 10-12 million migratory birds that gather to rest and feed there en route to and from their breeding grounds twice a year, for the spring migration in April and May and the autumn migration in September and October. Thy (IPA: [tʰy:ʔ], locally [tʰyʲkʲʰ]) is a traditional district in northwestern Jutland, Denmark. It is situated north of the Limfjord, facing the North Sea and Skagerrak, and has a population of around 50,000. The main towns of Thy are Thisted, Hanstholm and Hurup.
Since the Danish municipal reform of 1 January 2007, Thy is roughly identical with Thisted Municipality which belongs to the Region of North Jutland. The southernmost part of Thy, the Thyholm Peninsula, belongs to Struer Municipality in the Region of Central Jutland. Before the merger, Thy consisted of four municipalities: Hanstholm, Thisted, Sydthy and Thyholm.
Thy forms the western part of the North Jutlandic Island and borders Hanherred to the northeast with Vendsyssel even further northeast. South of the Limfjord is the island of Mors, considered a twin district of Thy, and Hardsyssel in western mainland Jutland. Thy is traditionally regarded part of northern and western Jutland alike. The dialect belongs to the West Jutlandic group. Thy has a very varied landscape. In the north it is marked by flat coastal plains which were covered by sea in neolithic times, but fell dry because of the . These are interrupted with higher-lying plains that were islands in the neolithic sea. In the slopes that formed the coast in these times, high-lying limestone is often visible - hence the name of the Limfjord. The eastern stretch, facing the Limfjord, has quite fertile soil, is slightly hilly and dotted with small villages and farms like the landscape in most of rural Denmark. The landscape is marked by strong western winds, most trees bending eastwards. The west coast has wide beaches and high dunes with Leymus grass and sea-buckthorn. Behind the dunes, there is heath with stretches of Calluna heather, Iceland moss, Cladonia, crowberry, bilberry, blueberry, cranberry and orchids including the unique Dactylorhiza majalis subsp. calcifugiens. This is the result of huge sand drift in the 15th to 19th centuries which covered much formerly fertile land. The sand drift affected the whole west coast of Jutland, and some other parts of Denmark as well. Since Thy is exposed to winds from both the north and the west, even from the North Atlantic, the sand drift went the furthest inland in this area, as far as 18 km (11 miles). Parts of the sandy stretches have been turned into conifer woods. A line of lakes, believed to have been caused by the sand drift's blocking the outflow to the sea, mark the border between the western, sparsely populated sandy area and the eastern, fertile farmland. The wetlands Vejlerne in the northeast are the largest bird sanctuary in Northern Europe. Nearby is the bird cliff Bulbjerg.
Thy National Park is renowned for its wealth of fantastic nature and more sunshine hours than in the rest of the country. The area offers the opportunity to experience the wide open spaces and feel the sand between your toes, as well as providing lots of adventures both in the natural surroundings and in the many other attractions the national park also has to offer.
Thy National Park, "Denmark’s last wilderness", is characterised by great natural and scenic amenities. The western part of Thy has been shaped by centuries of sand migration and today contains major national and international natural and scenic amenities in the form of coastline, dunes, sand heaths, lakes and sand plantations. Thy National Park means open spaces, openness, unspoilt countryside, peace and quiet and rare types of natural surroundings. This is supplemented by an exciting and valuable interaction between cultural history and nature which is a fundamental part of the concept behind the national park in Thy. The national park stretches from the lighthouse in Hanstholm in the north to Agger Tange in the south and is bordered on the east by farmland. The area sees the meeting of Arctic and southern European types of nature. The sand heaths are of European importance and are populated by many dwarf shrubs, but relatively little heather. In West Thy and around Hanstholm some of Denmark’s cleanest lakes are found. These lakes are both rich and poor in lime, and the aquatic plants and insect life in the lakes are unusual in relation to the rest of the country. On the steep limestone slopes around the former islands of the stone-age sea, for example near Hanstholm, there is a dry-bed flora of herbs, whilst in the brackish and salty wetlands near the tongues of land at Agger and Harboør there are numerous species of plants. Nature created by the elements There are only a few birds in the area, although several rare species can be found. Wind, currents and the battering of the waves continually alter the coastline. At the beginning of the 1800s the tongue of land between Agger and Harboøre was burst by the sea during a storm surge and the Limfjord became a strait
Welcome to Thy National Park...
On 29 June 2007, the dune and heath landscape of Thy was officially selected to be the first national park in Denmark proper (national parks already exist in Greenland). Three other areas in Jutland, the Wadden Sea, the areas around Skjern river and the hills of Mols, will follow suit in the next couple of years[2]. In total, seven outstanding areas are candidates for the status. The governmental Forest and Nature Agency states: Thy has a very great national and international significance. Not least so because of the many large dune and dune heath landscapes — from the lighthouse of Hanstholm to the isthmus of Agger — which are unique in a European context. The national park was officially opened on 22 August, 2008. The total area of the national park is 244 square km (94 square miles) On 10 July 2007, a police officer from Hanstholm found a hermit in the state forest of Hjardemål Klit, one of the more deserted areas in the north of Thy. For three years, the middle-aged man from Zealand had been living in the primitive forest shelters of the district and made a living from collecting empty bottles. For the same period he had been missed by his parents, who thought he was dead, but he was now re-united with them on the initiative of the police officer. Forest workers told they were aware of the man's existence, particularly that he had left behind many eggshells at the shelters and seemingly was nourished on eggs, but since he didn't do any harm they had left him alone. In the viking age the area had vital trade links across the North Sea, being Christianised from England by Saint Theodgarus, a missionary originally from Thuringia and trained in England, unlike other parts of Denmark that were Christianised from the south. The former cathedral and monastery of Theodgarus in Vestervig is today the largest village church of Scandinavia. In 1085 Thy was the gatehead for King Canute the Holy's plans to retake England from William the Conqueror, with 1,000 ships gathered in the Limfjord until the expedition was cancelled and a peasant uprising broke out. Tourism is a major business in summer, the coastal villages receiving many German tourists and smaller numbers of Norwegians, Swedes, Dutch and others. Although the coastal resorts have areas with individual holiday houses, they maintain a native population as well. The only major hotel-like holiday complex is at Vigsø Bugt east of Hanstholm. Thy has become a major destination for windsurfing.
