🐟 Lights On #4 — Urk: The Island That Stopped Being an Island ⚓

#### Urk · Saturday 12 September 2026 · 15:00

A fishing village where the sea was taken away. For the final chapter of our summer lighthouse series, we're going somewhere genuinely strange: a place that was an island until 1942, and then simply… wasn't anymore. 🌊

Urk sat out in the Zuiderzee for centuries — isolated, self-contained, fiercely its own. Then the water was drained, the land rose around it, and Urk found itself stranded in the middle of a brand-new province. It's our first ever event in Flevoland, and honestly, there's nowhere quite like it in the Netherlands.

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##### 🚶 The walk

We'll walk through the harbour and past the visafslag (the fish auction), because you can't understand Urk without understanding fish: for centuries this community has lived from fishing, and it's genuinely in the blood here. From there we follow the IJsselmeer, past the shipyards and the Wonder van Urk, until we reach the lighthouse — and then wander on through the village's beautiful monuments, where I'll tell you about the local myths and legends this fishing village is so rich in. 🧜

The lighthouse itself is a lovely thing. A coal fire has burned on this spot since 1617, guiding Urk's fishermen and the ships running from Amsterdam to the North Sea. The white tower you'll see went up in 1845 — and then, decades later, had to be made taller, because a building in the village had grown and was blocking its beam. 😄 It's also the only lighthouse in the country whose lens turns anticlockwise, thanks to a quirk of who built the mechanism. Generations of the same families kept the light; the last keeper's family still lives in the little house beside it.

And there's a wartime story attached to this tower that I'll save for the walk itself. 🤫

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##### 🍺 And then — the local beer

We'll finish at Café De Kaap, where we can try Zuiderzeebier, brewed locally, and eat something if we're hungry. 🍻

Worth knowing: it's also one of the very few places open in Urk. This is a village with strong traditions and a quiet feel, so options are limited — which makes De Kaap all the more of a find. A good spot to sit, drink, and let the day settle.

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##### 🗓️ Practical info

• 📅 When: Saturday 12 September 2026 · 15:00
• 📍 Meeting point: the Singel bus stop, Urk
• 🚶 The walk: through the harbour, along the IJsselmeer, to the lighthouse and the old village
• 🍺 After: Café De Kaap — Zuiderzeebier and food
• 🌐 Language: English

What to bring: comfortable shoes, a windproof layer (the IJsselmeer doesn't do gentle), and curiosity about a place unlike anywhere else in the country. 🌬️

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##### 👀 Who's this for?

Anyone who loves the sea, harbours, lighthouses, and stories about places that history did something odd to. It's the last Lights On of the year — and a fitting one, since Urk is the only stop in the whole series where the sea has since disappeared. ⚓

See you at the Singel bus stop — on the island that isn't.