Bullenkuhle

The Bullenkuhle is a predominantly marshy lake in the extreme north of the district of Gifhorn in the north German state of Lower Saxony. This strange biotope and geotope has been formed into a natural hollow in the terrain that is termed a sinkhole. The area is environmentally protected.LocationThe Bullenkuhle lies about 15 kilometres south of the town of Uelzen and a good kilometre west of the village of Bokel (in the municipality of Sprakensehl) at the edge of a large pine forest at a height of about 95m above NN. A stream emerges in the immediate vicinity which is initially called the Bokeler Bach and, later, becomes the Aue and finally, after combining with other streams, becomes an Elbe tributary, the River Ilmenau. The area belongs to the southeast fringes of the Hohen Heide in the centre of the Lüneburg Heath. This landscape formed from end and ground moraines and periglacial sediments was created geomorphologically mainly by the edges of the ice sheet during the later phases of the Saalian glaciation, i.e. during the so-called Drenthe II stage and the final glacial advance of the Warthe stage. The crests of the undulating ridges of end moraines are usually covered with pine forests growing on sandy soils; the ground moraines were used for agriculture. The typical open heath landscape of the Lüneburg Heath - which arose anthropogenically through overexploitation of forests, burning, plaggen cutting and grazing - only exists today in fragments in the area around the Bullenkuhle. The macroclimate of the Lüneburg Heath is maritime temperate.