Only five thousand years ago, the most western point of Jutland lay approx. 15 km further to the north east than it does today. Since then, the sea's movements have added sand walls to the ancient stone-age wall and the coastline has been dislocated towards south east.

Today, the most western point in Jutland is Blåvandshuk.

Horns Rev
The reasons why the sea has added sand walls to the old stone-age wall and why Blåvandshuk is capable of resisting the forces of the sea and the wear and tear of the coast, are to be found at sea. Here, glaciers of earlier Ice Ages desposited large amounts of moraine gravel, which forms the Horns Rev.

Horns Rev is thus the reason why the most western point of Jutland is a relatively young landscape, shaped by the forces of the wind, the waves and the current.

Horns Rev itself protects Blåvandshuk. However, both to the south and to the north of the reef it has been necessary to secure the coast against the tear and wear of the North Sea. Even though man has interfered with nature's own processes by securing the coast with dikes, sea walls and pumping of sand onto the beach, the elegant crescent of the coast between Blåvandshuk and Skallingen shows that it is still the sea that determines the shape of the coast.

The devils Horn
Horns Rev stretches approx. 20 nautical miles to the west from Blåvandshuk. The surf across the reef is very strong and it is not without reason that fishermen speak about the reef with deep respect. "Duivel's Hoorn" (The devil's horn) was the designation of the reef in ancient Dutch navigation books.

The depths at the reef vary between 1 and 10 meters but are cut off across by Slugen. There is quite a lot of fishery on and around Horns Rev today and fishing vessels as well as other vessels often sail through Slugen.

In the times of the sailing ships, the reef was considered one the World's most dangerous reefs and in rough weather, the vessels would sail far out into the North Sea to steer clear of the hard sand reef. Still, many vessels were lost at the reef or were smashed against it. Burial places at the coast's graveyards bear witness of the tragedies of Horns Rev.

Lighthouse
It was not until foreign shipping companies refused to call on the new harbour of Esbjerg around the 1870s that the lighthouse authorities took action and built the lightvessels Horns Rev (1878), Grådyb (1888) and Vyl (1906). In 1888 a beacon was built at Blåvandshuk but already in 1899, the present 42-meter lighthouse, which remains there as the area's landmark, replaced it.