2.4 kmVejers Beach and Dune Plantation
Wide beach and dune plantation nearby, ideal as a close neighboring visit to Grærup Strand.
Grærup Beach lies between Vejers and Henne Strand, but has a different rhythm than the larger holiday areas. Here the beach is wide, the sand is light, and there are dunes and nature around the coast. For families with children, it is especially worth noting that the beach is described as family-friendly, and that driving on the beach itself is not allowed.
The holiday village of Grærup is small and has no through traffic. That makes the area more subdued than many other places on the West Coast, especially if you are looking for a beach day with plenty of space rather than shops and town life. Behind the coast lies forest and dune landscape, and Grærup is a good starting point for understanding how close the beach, dunes, plantation and lake landscape are here.
To the east the area borders the Oksbøl Shooting and Training Range. Loud bangs can therefore be military activity and not necessarily thunder over the sea. In the nearby natural areas, it is important to follow signage and barriers when the Armed Forces are training. That contrast is part of Grærup's special character: a quiet beach town where the calm of the West Coast and the training range lie close together.
Behind Grærup Beach, the landscape changes from wide sand to dunes, heath, plantation, and meadowland around Grærup Langsø. Kærgård Plantation lies on an ancient coastal dune ridge, which 4-5,000 years ago separated Filsø from the North Sea.
At Langsø, you can experience birdlife and red deer, and during the rutting season the area is mentioned as a place where the stags' mating roars can be heard. The yellow route in Kærgård Plantation South is 5 km and leads down to a viewing platform by the lake.
Grærup Fishing Lake is located at Grærup Havvej 4 and consists of a larger and a smaller lake. It is also called Grærup Ralgrave: an old gravel pit with a water surface of approximately 6 ha and depths of up to 10 metres.
The Sports Fishing Association for Oksbøl and Surroundings holds the fishing rights and sells, among other things, day, week, and annual permits. You can fish for trout, roach, perch, eel, and pike, and there is an opportunity to fish all the way around the lake.
Grærup lies next to Oksbøl Shooting and Training Grounds, Denmark’s largest military firing and training area, covering around 6,500 hectares. Loud bangs in the area may therefore be due to military activity, not thunder over the dunes.
The area reached its current size after expropriations in the 1960s. The empty, darkened houses around Grærup, among other places, are a visible remnant of that history. Access may be closed during exercises, and bomb warning signs mean the area must not be entered.
