Hallerbos

For most of the year Hallerbos is a pleasant beech and oak wood south of Brussels, worth a walk but not a journey. For roughly two weeks in mid-spring it becomes something else entirely: the forest floor disappears under wild bluebells, a continuous haze of violet-blue running away between the smooth grey trunks, and because the beeches come into leaf just after the flowers open, the light falling through is a fresh acid green while the ground beneath is purple. The combination photographs so well that the wood has become internationally known, and in peak week the paths are busy from dawn. Marked trails of several lengths run through it, along with a section of red sequoias planted a century ago, and the forest is quiet and ordinary again by June.

History

The Hallerbos was part of the ancient Silva Carbonaria, with the Sonian Forest and Meerdaal, and as late as 1777 a strip of woodland still joined it to the Sonian Forest. Most of its old trees were felled during the First World War, and the forest was replanted between 1930 and 1950 (Wikipedia, Hallerbos).

The landscape

• The bluebell carpet - the forest floor solid with violet-blue for a fortnight.
• The beech light - the fresh green canopy above the purple ground.
• The sequoia grove - the tall red sequoias planted in the last century.
• The marked trails - loops of several lengths through the wood.

When to go

The bloom is short and shifts with the spring, generally somewhere between mid-April and early May; the forest publishes updates each year and it is worth checking rather than guessing. Early morning gives the best light and the fewest people. Outside those weeks it is an ordinary and quiet wood.

Before you go

The window is narrow and weather-dependent, so a mistimed visit means green forest and no flowers. In peak week it is genuinely crowded, with shuttle buses laid on and photographers everywhere. Bluebells are fragile and walking into them to pose kills the plants, which is why the paths are fenced and monitored; stay on them.

Nearby

Brussels is half an hour north; the Pajottenland and its lambic breweries lie west.

Key facts