From the Millennium Tower to the Fange de l'Abîme

Car park at the Tour du Millénaire, Croix-Scaille, part of Gedinne.

(S/E) After climbing to the top of the tower, head towards the road. Turn left, then left again onto the path behind the hedge and walk to the junction at the edge of the pine forest.

(1) Turn right until you reach the wide path and turn right again. At the grassy path on your left, marked by a large post and a tyre, turn left. Walk for 500 m along the path, which bends to the right, becomes a track and winds through the bushes until you reach a wide path.

Marking: Yellow Rectangle 41

(2) Head left and walk for 600 m, ignoring the cross-cutting paths, until you reach a multi-way junction. Turn left and cross the French border just before reaching the wide forest track. Continue to the right until you reach a path on your right.

(3) Turn right and, further on, when you reach the paths and tracks on your right, keep to the left. Follow the track, which is joined by a stream, before coming out onto a wide forest track. Continue to the right for about ten metres until you reach another track on your right.

(4) Take the path on the right, cross the ditch and, just after that, at the fork, take the^second path on the right. Once back in Belgium, ignore the^first gate in the fence. Walk to the^second gate, at a place called La Fange de l'Abîme, open it (make sure you close it behind you) and head left along the boardwalks of the state-owned nature reserve until you reach the T-junction.

(5) Turn left. Go through a gate (make sure you close it behind you). Go downhill and cross over the stream. At the end of the boardwalk, turn left. Take the path cluttered with roots and go downhill to the wide forest track. Continue to the right for 300 m until you reach a path on your right.

Unmarked

Turn right. Head uphill and follow the well-marked main path for 1 km, ignoring any cross-paths you come across.

(6) Take the grassy path on your right, about 200 m before the road. This path becomes a track and, depending on the time of year, you may or may not have to battle your way through the ferns. Once back on the wide forest track you took on the way out, turn left.

(2) At the bend, continue straight ahead. At the road, turn right and walk to the junction. Turn left towards Ferme Jacob, then turn right towards the buildings.

(7) At the information board for Ferme Jacob, head slightly to the right towards the oratory. Pass to the left of it.

Cross-country skiing trail markers

Take the path on the right and, at the two trees in the middle of the path, turn right. Walk straight on to the road, then turn left to return to the car park (S/E).

Good walking boots are recommended as the ground is wet and muddy in places.

There are many roads on the Croix Scaille plateau, with very few opportunities for long off-road walks
From October to December, please be aware of hunting dates

During

Tour du Millénaire: erected on the Croix-Scaille plateau, a spectacular 60-metre-high hourglass-shaped viewpoint, marking the highest point in the province of Namur and the^{fifth highest} in Belgium (503 m).
Inspired by history (four towers once stood on this summit at various times), this structure offers free access to a fabulous landscape stretching over 30 km in all directions, aided by an orientation table.
Staircases provide access to three viewing platforms situated at 15, 30 and 45 metres respectively. The site is open all year round except during the hunting season in this area, in the event of bad weather, or if the access road is reserved for cross-country skiing.

Fange de l'Abîme: A State Nature Reserve, situated on the Croix-Scaille plateau, at the junction of the Semois and Meuse valleys, a short distance from the French border. Covering just over 8 hectares, it is one of the last remaining examples of sphagnum peat bogs and peaty meadows. It is situated not far from the highest point in the Western Ardennes, at a place called ‘Croix-Scaille’ (505 m).

Croix-Scaille: on a map of the region drawn up in 1614, during the reign of Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella, the name ‘Croix d’Escaille’ appeared for the first time, at the junction of two forest paths. It is a place where a man from the Château Regnault estate was once killed; his parents had a slate cross erected there, which has since been broken and is no longer visible. In Walloon, ‘escaille’ or ‘scaille’ means slate, that Ardennes rock which splits so perfectly and is used for roofing. It is therefore a slate cross that gave rise to the name ‘Croix Scaille’. Today, the famous Escaille cross overlooks the entrance to Ferme Jacob. Found damaged in a copse and then stored in the farm’s bakery, it is said to have been returned to the façade in 1937 during the building’s restoration.

Ferme Jacob: In the 17th century, this farm was first known as Cense des Hez (coppice); it subsequently bore the names of successive farmers and ultimately retained the name of the Jacob family, who occupied it from the early 19th century. The Jacob Farm was for a long time the central point for the affouage (the right to collect firewood from a communal forest) for the inhabitants of the villages that now make up Gedinne. This house, nestled in a forest that is both dense and marshy, was also long a legendary and ideal hideout for political refugees from the neighbouring state, those wanted for banditry, and wayfarers in search of the absolute. Today, the Jacob Farm, now owned by the Municipality of Gedinne, is a rural lodge.