WALKING POINT Flemish Ardennes (derived)

The Flemish Ardennes are a rolling agricultural area in the southwest of Flanders with wooded ridges that can be up to 150 m high.

This is not a vast nature reserve. The walk takes you to three small forests atop ridges and further through expansive agricultural land.

Fortunately, the paths between the rolling fields are mostly unpaved, connected by only short stretches of asphalt.

 

The Flemish Ardennes

At the end of the 19th century, Omer Wattez took his friend Pol De Mont up the Geuzentoren. He looked at the rolling landscape around the Muziekberg and exclaimed with some exaggeration, ‘But these are the Flemish Ardennes’.

The ‘Flemish Ardennes’ belong to the hill range from 50 m to 150 m high that stretches from the Heuvelland (Kemmelberg, …), through the Flemish Ardennes (Kluisberg, Muziekberg, …) to Pajottenland (Bosberg, …) and Hageland.

These hills are witness hills: accents in the relief that testify to a landscape that was once much higher. Their geological history begins during the Tertiary, about 70 to 3 million years ago. Flanders was then under the sea, and the Ardennes were a plain with rivers flowing into it. In the Diestian Sea (7 million years ago), sandbanks were deposited that align parallel to the coast.

During the Alpine mountain building, the Alps were uplifted into a high mountain range. The plain of the Ardennes was also uplifted into a high plateau, and Flanders rose above the sea. Through river erosion, Flanders was later eroded back into a low plain. But the sandbanks of the Diestian Sea contain iron sandstone. These iron-rich peaks resist erosion, allowing the sandbanks to remain as witness hills in the landscape.

The isolated hills are unsuitable for agriculture due to their sandy substrate and steep relief: they are forested with beeches for timber production. Recently, nature management has replaced these beeches with heath and more ecologically interesting trees.

 

The Walk

East Flanders was last in line when God distributed natural areas in Flanders. In this province, you won't find large contiguous walking areas where you can take a long nature walk. Fortunately, there are the Flemish Ardennes with their remnant forests.

The walk takes you to the small forests atop the ridges of the Flemish Ardennes: the Muziekbos, the Sint-Pietersbos, and the Bos Ter Eecken. The Muziekbos (52 ha) has nothing to do with music; the name comes from ‘Muz’, which is Celtic for marsh. The forest mainly consists of beech trees planted for timber harvesting. The ascending paths of the Muziekbos are surrounded by barriers with thick ropes that accentuate the relief further. The Sint-Pietersbos (57 ha) was never completely cleared. Here you can still find several summer oaks that are over 150 years old.

Between the forests, the route seeks as many unpaved paths as possible. Even though there are surprisingly many unpaved roads in this expansive agricultural area, we have not managed to piece together more than 80% unpaved roads. Fortunately, the asphalt stretches between the walking paths are never long.

Atop the Muziekberg stands the famous Geuzentoren (made of iron sandstone) where the Flemish Ardennes received their ‘Geuzen name’. You will also find a Tumulus, a Gallo-Roman burial mound in which two urns with cremated bones were found. A little further is an abandoned quarry where you can see the iron sandstone from the Diestian sandbanks.

 

When

The route of this walk goes not only through forests but also over large open fields. Therefore, only take this walk in good weather, when it is calm and the sun is shining brightly.

The best period runs from late spring to early autumn. A hot, calm summer day is ideal for this walk.

The Muziekberg and the Sint-Pietersbos are small but well-known nature areas in the region, so it is often quite busy. But the paths between the fields are also well-trodden.

 

Start & Endpoint

Village Center Louise-Marie (named after the first Queen of Belgium)

Address: Louise-Mariestraat 17, 9680 Maarkedal

 

By car: there is an abundance of parking, but it is also very busy here during the weekend.

By public transport: travel by train to Oudenaarde or Ronse. Then take the bus to the village center of Louise-Marie.

 

Practical Info

In the village center of Louise-Marie, there is the restaurant Les Soeurs Louise

https://www.les-soeurs-louise.be

The short version of this walk also passes by Bistro Boekzitting.

https://www.boekzitting.be

For those who find the Flemish Ardennes too far for a day trip: you can stay at youth hostel ‘De Fiertel’ in Ronse. There you will find not only rooms but also a camping field.

https://www.jeugdherbergen.be/nl/ronse

 

This walk is part of a series of top walks in Flanders.

There is always a variant of +/-12 km and one of +/- 20 km.

https://www.wandelpunt.be