Minett Trail: Differdange – Belval-Rédange

8km trail through forest and former mining lands, where nature is quietly reclaiming the past.
Leave your car at home and enjoy accessing the trail by free public transport.
Starting point: Differdange Gare. Ending point: Belval-Rédange Gare.

There’s something deeply compelling about this stage of the Minett Trail. It leads you through one of the quietest corners of Luxembourg’s industrial south—where iron once ruled the earth, and nature is now slowly taking it all back. From the bustling streets of Differdange to rust-red scars in the forest, this is a walk that tells its story step by step.

The hike begins in the beating heart of Differdange, but makes a quick dash for the hills. Maybe it was just me, but I lost the trail markers twice in the town; instead of relying on them, simply head for the handsome pink-and-grey town hall standing proud above a manicured square (35, Rue de l’Hôpital). I lingered here for a few minutes, letting the statues and symmetry lull me into the rhythm of the day, before heading south-west out of the town and into the trees.

The urban sharpness begins to fade almost immediately. The route rises into a tunnel of young forest, where metal relics from the mining days still hang, quietly rusting above the path like forgotten scaffolding. There’s an odd peace to it—like walking through a green cathedral built on steel and soil.

As you hike along the paths around the former Grouff Mine, you’ll spot old railway tracks woven into the path—remnants of the iron ore trains that once rattled through this place.

This is a trail of subtle pleasures, ghosts of the past and whispered promises of a future closer to nature. The late-May air was thick with birdsong and the gentle hush of leaves as the trail rolled on past wild roses, their pink petals catching the ever-brightening light. I spotted several bees busily at work—a reminder that this landscape, once scraped bare by human endeavour, now hums with life again.

This part of the Minett is famous for its ochre cliffs and old quarries—and sure enough, I soon found myself looking out over a wide rust-red pit. On its edge sat a stark metal bench—or was it a sculpture? Either way, it invited pause and reflection. I stood there for a while, feeling the first real heat of the Luxembourg summer upon my brow, soaking in the silence. There’s no plaque here, no panel. Just a sense of gravity. And maybe that’s better.

A little further on, and this time there was an information board in front of a striking modern monument evoking an old concasserie. Here, raw ore once thundered through crushers before being sorted and sent rumbling away on narrow tracks, a small step in the long journey towards the furnaces.

From the concasserie, the trail winds down – literally and metaphorically – towards its low-key ending point at Belval-Rédange gare. From here, you can take the train back to Differdange or, like I did, just keep putting one foot in front of the other all the way to Esch-sur-Alzette.

The choice is entirely up to you.