The eastern part, called "Ørkenen" (The Desert) is treeless; the government has protected the area and permits no building there.

In 1995/6 the Danish Heath Society cleared large areas in the south part of Ørkenen of mountain pine.

Consequently, in 1560 King Frederick II ordered the erection of bascule lights at Skagen, Anholt, and Kullen Lighthouse to mark the main route through Danish waters from the North Sea to the Baltic.

[3] Despite the bascule light, on 10/11 November 1716 the 60-gun third-rate HMS Auguste, Captain Robert Johnson, ran ashore on the island of Anholt during heavy weather and was wrecked.

The present Anholt Fyr (lighthouse) belongs to the Danish Maritime Safety Administration and has the status of a protected historical landmark.

Anholt belonged to the parish of Morup in the Danish province of Halland until the middle of the 16th century, when a church was built on the island itself.

[citation needed] A more plausible explanation is that Swedish forces had not conquered the fairly remote island and had little interest in it.

], lawyer Jens Christian Rostgaard von der Maase, of Copenhagen, has owned the greater and protected part of the island.

On 5 December 1808, the bomb ketch HMS Proselyte was wrecked on the Anholt Reef while trapped in floating ice; the Danes rescued all her crew and immediately made them prisoners of war.

Following the loss of Proselyte, on 18 May 1809, the 64-gun third rate HMS Standard, under Captain Askew Paffard Hollis, the 36-gun frigate Owen Glendower, Avenger, Ranger, Rose, and the gunvessel Snipe captured the island.

Hollis stated that Anholt was important as a source of water to the Navy, and as a good anchorage for merchant vessels going to or coming from the Baltic.

[8] The principal objective of the mission was to restore the lighthouse on the island to its pre-war state to facilitate the movement of British men of war and merchantmen navigating the dangerous seas there.

However, the battle of Anholt resulted in a significant British victory and the Danes made no further attempts to recapture the island.

He described the lighthouse in some detail and also gave some impressions of the island: The garrison at present consists of about three men of a veteran battalion, and a few marine artillery, which form by many degrees the most considerable portion of the population, for, exclusive of the military and their appendages of wives and children, there are but sixteen families on the island, who all reside at the only village on it, near the high ground to the westward, and whose principal occupation is fishing, in which they are generally very successful during the summer.

[11]On 28 February 1812, the 16-gun brig HMS Fly was wrecked on Anholt, but without loss of life, as the British garrison on the island were able to rescue the crew.

The British held Anholt until the Treaty of Kiel, which was signed on 15 January 1814, ended the war and returned the islands to Denmark.

Another grave is of Flying Officer Ronald Kenneth Stratford DFM of 460 (RAAF); his Lancaster was also shot down on a raid to Stettin on 30 August 1944.

[citation needed] A daily ferry from Grenå on the eastern coast of Jutland takes about three hours to reach Anholt.

The ferry detours around the wind farm, which will compensate for the increased fuel consumption in order to maintain sailing schedules.

Flights depart from Roskilde Airport on the Danish main island, Zealand, via Copenhagen Air Taxi.

The harbour functioned as a safe haven in storms for the vessels fishing in the Kattegat, as well as a home port for Anholt's own fishermen.

[citation needed] From the two highest points on the island – Sønderbjerg (48 m) and Nordbjerg (39 m) – one can see Jutland or Sweden on a clear day.

The main part of the electricity is distributed to the mainland via a sea cable to Jutland, entering land by the town Grenå.