Falaën et les ruines de Montaigle

From the car park, beside the fortified farm of Falaën, take the lanes of the village and follow the red bars of walk 5, the Ruines de Montaigle. The path climbs out of the village by lanes and tracks and crosses fields and woods to the valley, where it passes within about 100 m of the ruins of the castle of Montaigle, a medieval fortress on a rocky spur where the Molignée meets the Flavion. It goes on below the Rochers du Montaigle, whose caves, mapped as prehistoric, open beside the path, swings east, and comes back over the plateau by a wayside shrine and the cross of Notre-Dame des Douleurs to the village.

It is 8.9 km round with 206 m of ascent; allow about 2¾ hours. The tourist board gives 8.1 km, 170 m of ascent and 3 hours for its walk from the village square; ours starts at the car park and follows the waymarked walk 5 shown in OpenStreetMap, which is about 9 km, and our ascent is 21% more than the tourist board's figure. The grade is Easy on our scale, which goes by time: the ups and downs are short, and the ground is lanes and village road (45%), paths (28%) and tracks (27%). For about 170 m near 6 km the path is mapped with no visible trail, so keep to the waymarks.

On the day of a drive hunt, hunters can ask for the public roads and paths through a forest to be closed; a closed path has a red-background poster at its entrance. The Walloon government's hunting map (ChasseOnWeb) shows our line crossing two hunting territories, one around the ruins and the Rochers du Montaigle and one over the fields and plateau. The Walloon government's page on forest use also asks walkers to stay on the paths, keep dogs on a lead and make no fire. The ruins of Montaigle are an archaeological site run by its own association (chateau-fort-de-montaigle.be), which gives its visiting dates and hours; the walk does not enter them.

The start is a mapped car park in Falaën, about 60 m from the Château-ferme de Falaën, the fortified farm of 1672 with three towers that the tourist board's page mentions, and 270 m from the village square. Falaën is a village of the commune of Onhaye.

Route drawn by Global Adventurer along OpenStreetMap paths (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), with figures worked out from it. Check the forecast and the ground on the day: paths change.