Skovstien EN - Owls on the Poor House
An expert in hunting mice.
In the bright hours of the day the barn owl hides preferably in large buildings and barns. But when it is dark it emerges. Then it is time to catch mice. You will not find a greater expert in catching mice. The barn owl can locate its prey in total darkness. It doesn’t migrate and will stay in the same place summer and winter, year after year. The barn owl’s young will leave the nest but not move more than 10-20 km away.
Gørrismark
A little to the right ahead you’ll see Ecco center which is a domicile for the worldwide Ecco concern. It holds administration, conference center, hotel and design center among other things. By the entrance road you can see the sculpture “Foden” (The Foot). From 1978 Tønder’s School of Agriculture had its buildings here and before that an old poor house called Gørrismark but it burned down in 1970. Gørrismark is first mentioned in 1449 as a ducal farm. The dean of Tønder, Balthasar Petersen, bought the farm in 1766 and willed the farm in 1786 as a foundation to aid students at Tønder Teachers’ College. From 1853 the town of Tønder used the premises as a poor house until 1937 and then as a work house until it became the School of Agriculture in 1978.