HAUTES FAGNES–EIFEL NATURE PARK

The high fenlands of the Eifel plateau are protected for their water-fed vistas and fragile ecosystems that are a haven for wildlife.

The Hautes Fagnes–Eifel Nature Park covers 72 sq km along Belgium’s eastern border in the province of Liège. The park was created in 1971 as a Belgian–German initiative to protect the Eifel high plateau which straddles the two countries. The German portion is called the Nordeifel Nature Park and is the larger of the two sections, stretching between the towns of Düren and Prüm.

The Belgian part runs between Eupen in the north to the provincial border with Belgian Luxembourg in the south. It incorporates the picturesque lakes of Robertville and Bütgenbach, the Our river valley, the Hertogenwald forest and the Losheimergraben woods. Most importantly, it contains the Hautes Fagnes National Nature Reserve, from which the larger park takes its name.

High fens The Hautes Fagnes reserve was created in 1957 and is both the largest in Belgium and the only nationally protected one. Hautes Fagnes means ‘high fens’, and the reserve’s landscape is one of moors, peat bogs, and low, grass or wood covered hills. Belgium’s highest point falls within the park, at the modest altitude of 694m at Botrange. The spot is marked by the Signal de Botrange tower, whose additional height bumps the elevation up over 700m. The Botrange offers views over the pale grass moors of Hautes Fagnes, west to the provincial capital of Liège, east to the park’s German section and south to the dark forested hills of the Ardennes.

Seasonal change The Hautes Fagnes is one of the wettest and coldest areas of Belgium. Often shrouded in mist and low cloud, the area receives a bountiful 1.5m of rain every year. The result is a wealth of ecologically important raised sphagnum bogs, which cover both the plateaux and valley basins.

The spongy sphagnum moss retains water and forms peat as it decays, providing habitats for rare ferns and flowering plants. Some of the bogs are over 10,000 years old, and much of the park’s conservation work revolves around them. Walking within the reserve is limited to marked paths, and raised wooden walkways protect both the environment and ramblers’ feet. Outside the confines of the reserve exploration is less regulated, and visitors are free to wander through the forests and farmland.

In winter, all of this water translates to snow, and the Hautes Fagnes becomes one of Belgium’s top cross-country ski centres. This is also a spectacular time to visit the reserve as the walkways offer excellent views across the fens, blanketed in their coat of snow. No parallel ski tracks will disturb this smooth white expanse but visitors may see the prints of deer or of any of the park’s 160 species of bird.

Areas of snow which look as if they have been scuffed or kicked will probably be a lek, the stomping ground of the black grouse. These birds are protected in Belgium as the destruction of their moorland habitats has endangered them both here and elsewhere in Europe.

A healthy population lives within the park and they are easily spotted perched in the bare branches of trees. Males are coal-black, with distinctive red crests raised above their eyes like startled brows. Females are less dramatically feathered, but both sexes can reach over half a metre in length.

Botrange and beyond Most of the walks within the reserve at Hautes Fagnes begin by the visitors’ centre at the foot of the Signal de Botrange. The centre hosts an exhibition on the 500 million year history of the park’s landscape, imaginatively housed in an underground ‘time tunnel’.

Guided walks and rides leave from the centre all year round, and both skis and bicycles can be hired here. An alternative method of viewing the park is onboard the Vennbahn, a restored steam train, which departs near Eupen for trips through Hautes Fagnes and over the border into the German Eifel forests.

For visitors wishing to explore further afield, 560km of trails lead through the rural and forested cantons immediately adjoining the park. Environmentally friendly travel options are being extended by the RAVeL scheme, a project which aims to link more than 2,000 canal towpaths and decommissioned railway lines for cycling and walking. Routes to date include an old railway line heading towards the Ardennes, a westward trail to Liège and a crescent linking the settlements of Spa and Stavelot on the park’s border.

Spa The town of Spa sits on the boundary between the Eifel fenlands and the Ardennes and, as its name suggests, is famous for the waters which rise here. Historically frequented by European monarchy and aristocracy, the town retains an air of faded splendour in its buildings and public areas. It is still popular with visitors who wish either to take or bathe in the waters, which are rich in iron and other minerals, leached from the soil of the Hautes Fagnes.

Coo-Stavelot is the starting point for canoe trips on the River Amblève. Further north, the village of Robertville has a restored medieval castle. Using 17th century engravings, the castle was rebuilt in the 1970s and today houses displays on the Middle Ages. From Robertville it is less than an hours journey west to Liège – once an important ecclesiastical centre and now home to museums of modern, Walloon, religious and decorative arts.

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