The Mullerthal, in the east of the country near Echternach, is a landscape of eroded sandstone: blocks the size of houses split by narrow fissures, corridors barely wide enough to pass through, overhangs, caves and small waterfalls, all under beech forest and covered in moss and ferns.
The nickname Little Switzerland is nineteenth-century and misleading — there are no mountains — but the walking is genuinely good, and it is the best natural area in Luxembourg.
The rock formations
The sandstone is Luxembourg Sandstone, laid down in the Jurassic and since fractured and weathered into forms with names: the Perekop, the Räuberhöhle, the Hohllay cave with its quarried millstone marks, the Wolfsschlucht. Paths thread between and sometimes through them, with metal steps and handrails where needed.
The Schiessentümpel is the emblem: a small triple waterfall under a stone bridge, endlessly photographed and genuinely lovely, particularly after rain or in snow.
The Mullerthal Trail
The Mullerthal Trail covers 112 kilometres in three loops, waymarked and well maintained, and holds the European Leading Quality Trail label. Most people walk sections rather than the whole thing — the loop from Berdorf through the rock formations, or the stretch from Echternach to Consdorf, are the classic day walks, four to six hours each.
The terrain is not difficult but it is uneven, with steps, roots and wet rock. Proper footwear matters here more than the modest distances suggest.
Beaufort
Beaufort has two castles side by side: a medieval ruin and a seventeenth-century Renaissance château, both open. The ruin is the more atmospheric; the Renaissance house is furnished and includes a shop selling the local cassis blackcurrant liqueur, made here since the 1950s.
Practical
Echternach, Berdorf, Consdorf and Beaufort all make bases, with campsites, guesthouses and a youth hostel. Buses reach the main villages and are free, though the trailheads are easier with a car.
Spring and autumn are best — the beech forest is at its finest, and the rocks are less crowded than in high summer, when this is a popular destination for Dutch, Belgian and German visitors.
The name
Mullerthal means millers valley in Luxembourgish, and the mills that gave it the name used the streams running through the sandstone. Several survive as buildings along the Ernz Noire, and the walking routes follow the old mill paths, which is why they connect villages rather than simply looping through forest.