Just south of Zuidlaren is Schipborg, a town with around 600 inhabitants. Known for the Pieterpad and the annual FestivalderAa, and home to the monumental farm The Schipborgdesigned by the architect Berlage and commissioned by Helene Kröller-Müller.
Schipborg must have originated as a village in the early Middle Ages. According to Dorpsbelangen Schipborg, there were six farms around the year 900. Around 1300 there were 10, a number that did not change until 1900.
Schipborg was part of the Anloo kerspel from its inception. Church roads, sand paths over which churchgoers found their way to the church, connected the villages in the village with the church village of Anloo. Schipborg was located at a crossroads: to Zuidlaren, Rolde, Zeegse, Anloo and Annen. Because Schipborg was in the center, it was an important traffic junction.
In 1815, the municipality of Anloo with the same boundaries became the municipality of Anloo. During the municipal reorganization of 1998, the medieval kerspel boundaries were abandoned and Schipborg, together with the rest of the municipality of Anloo, became part of the municipality of Aa and Hunze.
Schipborg was originally called ‘Borck’ or ‘Borch’, a name that indicates the presence of a fortified farm. Later the name ‘Geuneborch’ was used, which can still be found in 1634 on a map of Drenthe drawn by Cornelis Pijnacker. This was probably to distinguish from what is called Westerborg on the same map, the current Westerbork.