The moor complex, Bürmoos-Weidmoos-Ibmermoor, lies in the triangle where Salzburg, Upper Austria and Bavaria meet, and was formed by the Salzach glacier movement. At one time it was the largest moorland in Austria with an area of 2.500 hectares.

The Bürmoos moorland with an area of around 400 hectares is the southernmost part of the complex.

This area had been left completely to nature until around 1860, when people started to settle here. The peat was used by a glass factory and a brickworks as a means of cheap heating.

The glass blowers, peat cutters and brickworks employees, who settled in the middle of this moorland, came from all parts of the Austro-hungarian empire, - Bohemia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany and Italy – a colourful mixture, which stood out against the local farming fraternity. In 1930 the glass factory was closed, 1977 the brickworks, and in 2000 the mechanical cutting of peat was stopped.

The use of peat in the glass factory, in the brickworks and also in providing garden humus, all contributed to the almost irrevocable destruction of the moorland. By 1985 the local inhabitants of Bürmoos had already realised the negative results of the exploitation of the moorland and formed an association called „Torferneuerungsvereines Bürmoos“ (TEV) to try to save and reactivate what was left of a desert-like region. The TEV succeeded, by way of thousands of hours of work and with no external help, in recreating a valuable natural area, which in 2008 was declared a National Trust and European protected area. A theme trail now leads through the moor, using 22 showcases to explain the history of the moorland.

Stories of the glass blowers, peat cutters and brick workers are told, a unique culture found only in the province of Salzburg, along with details about flora and fauna to be found on the moor. The fascinating animal and plant world is found around the lake, Bürmooser See“ (a remnant of the peat cutting days), in many newly-formed ponds, meres, wetland meadows and extensive areas of reeds. There is also an old traction engine on show, the so-called „bockerlbahn“, which was used to transport the peat.