The star-shaped fort near the village of Bakkeveen was described by Dutch author and landscape conservationist Berend van der Veen as ‘clearly distinguishable and completely overgrown with tall trees’. This historic monument on the De Slotplaats country estate has hexagonal earth ramparts arranged in the form of a star and is 75 to 80 metres in diameter. Historian Jaap de Zee and history teacher Klaas Sikkema rediscovered the star fort in the 1990s. Together they made several attempts to get the fort restored. In 1997, plans to restore the fort moved up a gear when the estate was taken over by Natuurmonumenten, the organisation that preserves landscapes and cultural heritage in the Netherlands. The restoration work was completed in 2002. The fort was completely overgrown with trees and was barely visible. Part of the restoration work involved removing the trees to reveal the layout of the fort.
