Forester's lodge

Woodcutters' huts are as old as forestry itself. To begin with, temporary accommodation was usually built for the clearing of areas of forest, but they became more permanent in the High Middle Ages in Europe as more and more timber was felled for mining, saltworks, shipbuilding and firewood, in order to reduce the distance from home to workplace. The foresters could remain in an area of timber felling for weeks. With the development of forestry rights, the profession of foresters emerged and so the forester's lodge became a place of work. In some cases, large forester's estates were created.

Usually forester's houses are solid, brick-built structures that are often permanently occupied, for example as forestry administrative offices, and usually in or near settlements, while forester's huts are less well built, simpler shelters and overnight accommodation in the more remote regions of a forest district. Even today, a forester's house and several forester's huts may be only temporarily constructed in a larger forest district, during forest management work. The development of forest tracks and logging lorries, however, has meant that overnighting on site is no longer necessary in Central Europe, but is still common in the large forests of northern Europe. Sometimes a combined site is used for hunting and forestry (in Germany referred to as a Hegerhaus).