This walk takes you on a varied trip through the beautiful Mollendaal forest with thick oaks and stately beech trees, after which you can enjoy the beautiful views of the vast fields and walk through picturesque sunken roads.
Distance: 13 km.
Time: 3h30.
Grade: Moderate.
Type: Circular.
Gps Track: Yes.
Route description: Yes.
Wheelchair: Not suitable.
Dog: Allowed.
Height gain: 187 meters.
Trail: 90% unpaved.
Marking: Walking nodes.
Hiking shoes recommended.
Advertisement.
Thick Oak.
From the center of Bierbeek you walk through an open landscape in the direction of the Mollendaal forest. Here the thick oaks will stand out, those are oaks with a circumference of more than 2.5 meters. At junction 72 you reach the shelter at “De Moemedel”. 'Delle' is a valley in which various sources originate. Then you walk on beautiful forest roads where the stately beech trees will certainly stand out. You will find the oldest oak in this forest on the Dikke Eikdreef. This monumental oak is more than 300 years old and has a trunk of more than 5 meters in circumference. In the 1970s, the life of this giant was threatened , when one of the branches was torn off during a storm and seriously injured the trunk. The tree survived and is currently more vital than ever. In the Walendreef you will pass two unique sculptures. Local artist Ad Wouters made the tree sculptures 'the whistle of little luck' and 'the woodpecker' in the trunks of two dead oaks. You continue through the forest to suddenly get a beautiful panorama of the vast fields. Through an open landscape and picturesque hollow roads you walk further through the Schavaai. Schavaai is a dialect for fagots and also the name of the offshoot of the mighty Meerdaal forest that reaches here. You go back past several centuries-old farms and the Mollendaal brook to the Sint-Hilarius church, the starting point.
Download PDf for nodes to follow.
Paths can be quite soggy.
POI 1 - Mollendaal forest.
Mollendaal forest is the eastern part of the Meerdaal forest and lies largely on the territory of Bierbeek. With its 1800 ha, the Meerdaal Forest is one of the largest forests in Flanders and, together with the Zoniën Forest, was once part of the extensive Kolen Forest, which covered all of central Belgium between the 11th and the 13th century. Afterwards, large parts of the forest were cleared, witness of which many villages in the region bear names ending in "–rode" (Haasrode, St-Agatha-Rode, St-Pieters-Rode, ...). The Meerdaal forest was Long owned by the lords of Bierbeek and then passed to the counts de Croy and van Arenberg, since 1929 it has been owned by the Belgian state.
No additional information.
