Shepherds of the Hautes Fagnes once stopped at noon in a clearing called a prandj'lohe, a midday resting place, and rested their flocks under six beeches. The clearing is still there in the Fagne de Longlou near Malmedy, now ringed by spruce, and the old beeches, roughly 250 years old, are still in it, though fewer and frailer than the name promises. Wallonia protected the site in 1936, and in 1993 the Amis des Fagnes planted young beeches beside the old ones. The GR56 trail passes it, free and open at all times.
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Les Six Hêtres de Longlou
European Beech (Fagus sylvatica) · roughly 250 years · Beverce (Malmedy), Province de Liege
Shepherds used to stop here at noon with their flocks, and the beeches they rested under are still standing, though not for much longer. The clearing in the Fagne de Longlou was a prandj'lohe, the local name for a midday resting place, and the spruce plantation that now closes in on every side did not exist when the shepherds used it. They would not recognise the approach.
The beeches are roughly 250 years old by the estimate of the local hiking guides, and Wallonia classified the site as protected heritage on 15 January 1936. The GR56 long-distance trail runs past, which is how most people arrive: on foot, through the Hautes Fagnes, with the clearing appearing only when the conifers open up.
Know what you are walking to. The old trees are at the end of their lives, and in 1993 the Amis des Fagnes planted young beeches beside them so the resting place would outlast its namesakes. How many of the original six still stand is not settled: one account says three, and we have not been able to confirm it. If you have stood in the clearing recently, tell us the count.
What you find is a place in the middle of handing itself over, old trunks and their replacements side by side. That is a reason to go sooner rather than later.
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