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The Wadden or Frisian Islands (Dutch: Waddeneilanden, German: Friesische Inseln, Danish: Vadehavsøerne) are a row of islands on the North Sea coast spanning from Texel in the Netherlands to Fanø in Denmark. Depending on the language, they lend their name either to the Frisian tribes that inhabited this coast and these islands during Roman times, and that to this day are a regional minority most prominent in the Netherlands, or to the Wadden Sea, the tidal sea between the islands and the mainland coast, characterised by its mudflats and population of seals.

Regions

The Frisian Islands are divided into several groups, mostly defined by what river estuaries divided them, and what country they belong to. Any two islands can have wildly different identities as a result of this national division.

West Frisian Islands (Texel, Vlieland, Ameland, Terschelling and Schiermonnikoog) The West Frisian Islands, or simply Wadden Islands, as they're referred to in Dutch, protect the coast of the Northern Netherlands against storm surges. They each have a relatively rural character.

East Frisian Islands (Borkum, Juist, Norderney, Baltrum, Langeoog, Spiekeroog and Wangerooge) Spanning between the Ems and Weser rivers, the East Frisian islands are more developed than their Dutch counterparts, often featuring infrastructure like airports and narrow-gauge railways.

North Frisian Islands (Heligoland, Pellworm, Amrum, Föhr, Sylt and the Halligen) Being home to both a massive tourist industry on Sylt, and some of the smallest populated islands, often featuring just a couple of houses, the Northern group of islands are certainly more diverse in character than any of the other islands.

Danish Wadden Sea Islands (Rømø, Mandø and Fanø) Belonging to the same island row as the German North Frisian Islands, the Danish islands are set apart by being a national park altogether.

Understand

The sandy beaches of Juist are an example of the Frisian Islands' sandy beaches.

The Frisian Islands are a turbulent bunch of islands, which lie at the whims of the North Sea's waves and the water's tide. Most prominently, the islands 'wander': They erode at their western ends, and in the east (or north, in case of the North Frisian Islands) sedimentation creates new land. Because of this wandering, many of the towns on the islands are located on the westernmost end of the island. Due to this movement, as well as storm floods, some towns and islands have disappeared into the waves altogether, though the risk of an island being swallowed by the sea nowadays is negligible because of modern flood defences.

The changing of Noorderhaaks, an uninhabited sandbank between Den Helder on the Dutch mainland, and Texel, between 1984 and 2017.

A second kind of movement is the hook-forming: Along the deeper trenches in the Wadden Sea, sedimentation creates new hook-shaped sandbanks such as the sandbank of Noorderhaaks at the very start of the island chain. Sometimes, these hooks hook into an existing island, expanding it in the process.

Due to the two very different seas on either side of the islands, they often have a beach-side and a wadden-side. The first mostly being appealing to the general audience, with the second being more appealing to nature-lovers.

Terminology

Almost all islands on this page are both Frisian Islands and Wadden Islands. The latter term refers to the Wadden Sea, and are all islands that are located within it, notably excluding Heligoland, as it lies in the middle of the North Sea where none of the mudflats that identify the Wadden Islands are found.

The Frisian Islands term is named after the Frisii, a tribe along the Wadden Sea coast during the time of the Roman Empire. The Romans considered them Germanic peoples, although their language presumably was a mixture of Proto-Germanic and Proto-Celtic. The Frisii were mostly found along the Dutch coast, and were succeeded by a Frankish people that ruled between the cities of Bruges in Belgium and Bremen in Germany. The tribe vanished from the region to reappear in Belgium and England, but they left their name as that of the coastal region. Later Frisian entities spanned mostly along the Dutch and German coastlines between the cities of Alkmaar and Husum. The independence of Frisian entities slowly came to an end during the second half of the Mediaeval era as they were slowly subjugated by surrounding countries. As no parts of Denmark are considered to have ever been a part of a Frisian entity, the Danish Wadden Islands aren't ever referred to as Frisian.

Talk

A memorial stone on the island of Amrum, with an inscription written in Öömrang.

On all islands, the native tongue (Dutch, German and Danish respectively) is widely understood and spoken. English will get you by most places, though German is the most useful as a back-up. The native tongues in their own respect have replaced the Frisian language on a lot of islands during the Middle Ages. Frisian dialects are still spoken, though by very small amounts of people. These Frisian dialects are further subdivided in West, East and North Frisian, of which only West Frisian isn't under threat of extinction.

Because of this nearly-extinct status of many of the dialect families, many of the islands give their local dialect a prominence on the island. The West Frisian islands in the Netherlands are home to Texel (Tessels), Terschelling (Aasters, Westers and Midslands), Ameland (Amelands) and Schiermonnikoog (Eilauners). The East Frisian islands in Germany, meanwhile, have no local Frisian dialects left, with Wangerooge Frisian being the last hold-out. One other dialect of East Frisian, Ems Frisian, is still spoken by about two thousand speakers on the mainland. The North Frisian islands have a bit more to offer: Insular North Frisian variations are spoken on Sylt (Söl'ring), Föhr (Fering), Amrum (Öömrang) and Helgoland (Halunder). On some of the Halligen, Halifreesk is spoken.

Get in

Mudflat hiking

Due to the tidal character of the Wadden Sea, some islands can at the right time of day, be reached by foot by traversing the mostly drained seabed.