WALKING POINT Flemish Ardennes (derived) (derived)

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

This is not a large nature reserve. The walk takes you to three small forests atop hillocks and further through extensive 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 to the top of 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 range of hills 50 m to 150 m high that stretches from the Heuvelland (Kemmelberg, …), over the Flemish Ardennes (Kluisberg, Muziekberg, …) to Pajottenland (Bosberg, …) and Hageland.

These hills are hillocks: 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 is then underwater, and the Ardennes are a plain with rivers flowing into it. In the Diestian Sea (7 million years ago), sandbanks are deposited that lie in a line parallel to the coast.

During the Alpine mountain formation, the Alps are uplifted to a high mountain range. The plain of the Ardennes is also uplifted to a high plateau, and Flanders rises above the sea. Due to river erosion, Flanders is then worn back to 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 hillocks in the landscape.

The isolated hills are not suitable for agriculture due to their sandy substrate and steep relief: they are forested with beech trees for timber harvesting. Recently, nature management is replacing these beeches with heath and ecologically more interesting trees.

The Walk

East Flanders was at the back of the line when God distributed nature reserves in Flanders. In this province, you will not find large contiguous walking areas where you can take a long nature walk. Fortunately, there are the Flemish Ardennes with its remaining forests.

The walk takes you to the small forests atop the hillocks 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 swamp. The forest mainly consists of beech trees planted for timber harvesting. The climbing paths of the Muziekbos are surrounded by a barrier with thick ropes that accentuates the relief even more. The Sint-Pietersbos (57 ha) was never completely cleared. Here you will still find a number of pedunculate oaks over 150 years old.

Between the forests, the trajectory seeks out unpaved paths as much as possible. Although there are surprisingly many unpaved roads in this extensive agricultural area, we have not succeeded in gathering more than 80% unpaved roads. Fortunately, the stretches of asphalt between the walking paths are never long.

Atop the Muziekberg stands the famous Geuzentoren (made of iron sandstone) where the Flemish Ardennes got their ‘geuzennaam’. You will also find a Tumulus, a Gallo-Roman burial mound where two urns with burnt 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. So, make this walk only in good weather, when it is still and the sun is shining brightly.

The best period runs from late spring to early autumn. A hot, windstill 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 there. 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 on weekends, it can also be incredibly busy here.

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 the youth hostel ‘De Fiertel’ in Ronse. You will find not only rooms but also a camping meadow.

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