Attractions and Places To See in Rammelaars - Top 15

A flowery spot in the summer. The canal is also used by pleasure boats. In Kwaadmechelen you pass the nature reserve De Rammelaars and if you walk towards Olmen you will come to the back of the Olmense zoo where the local youth sometimes swim in the summer. A completely different canal than the Albert Canal and a magnet for walkers, cyclists and of course fishermen. Beautiful in every season and for cyclists and very brave walkers a direct route to the waters around Mol and Dessel, nature reserve Den Diel and the like.

This is the Dessel-Kwaadmechelen connecting canal...

Update: The bat path has been slightly improved. You still have to walk slowly, look out and have a good sense of balance, but I think it's not too bad, even though it's drier now. You don't come to this area for a rough tour anyway, it is traditionally too swampy for that.

From the path along the marsh forest you can see the remains and traces of the old peat pits on the forest side. An older information board (look closely, you can easily walk past it gives you an explanation) about that past. As mentioned elsewhere, turg used to be stung here. The information board, titled "History draws the landscape" explains: ""Until 1940, people dug out the peat layer here for peat extraction. Peat is dried peat that served as fuel. The peat layer was created because dead plants in marshes were preserved in a wet, low-oxygen environment, instead of rotting away into humus". More on the board.

One season drier than the other. In this area iron ore was mined and peat cut. At the end of the nineteenth century there were open iron ore mines. The ore was transported via a railway line from Gerhoeven over the stream to Hovesteen to go from there to the Ruhr area and the Liège smelting furnaces where rails were made from it. However, the iron content was small in this region (Beringen, Paal and Kwaadmechelen) and iron ore mining disappeared from the Kempen. At least that's what it says on the info board of Natuurpunt that you can find here. Scale and competition also appeared to play a role in the end of this iron mining. Wikipedia: "In the moist brook valley (ie De Rammelaars) small-scale human activities used to take place. There were hay meadows that were irrigated with nutrient-rich water from the brook. Coppice wood was also extracted. Peat was cut and iron ore was also produced on some scale. This was a profitable business especially in the 19th century, but from about 1900, given competition from large-scale iron ore mines, it was no longer profitable."

Anyone who has cycled or walked along the Dessel-Kwaadmechelen canal in recent decades will undoubtedly have seen the lower-lying nature house from the towpath on the Meerhout side. That lower-lying nature reserve also has a name and a long history: De Rammelaars, as it is called, is a swampy area that escaped the upscaling of agriculture. Much of the water in the streams and ponds in the low-lying swamp area is brownish/rusty in color. This is caused by the seepage: ferrous groundwater that rises to the surface and helps determine the landscape. As the information board of Natuurpunt, which manages the area, indicates, De Rammelaars has a great biodiversity due to a mosaic of alder swamp forests, brushwood, flowery wet grasslands and wooded edges.

De Rammelaars is a low-lying, swampy area. From the middle of the 19th century, the Kempen was converted on a large scale into an agricultural area with larger and drier plots. De Rammelaars was spared, precisely because it was so wet and remote. It is therefore a rare witness to the once common Kempen stream valley landscape with small grasslands surrounded by wooded edges and rows of trees, and alder marshes. Upwelling of ferrous groundwater or seepage can be seen in the rusty color of streams and some ponds. In the Rammelaars you can still see the contours of peat pits where the peat layer was dug out until the end of the 19th century. Peat was used as a fuel, including for the smelting of iron ore that was mined in the region. This low quality iron ore was smelted into iron. After peat extraction stopped, nature took over the landscape again and the vegetation evolved into alder marsh forest. In addition, water management is organized on the basis of the extensive canal system that was constructed at the beginning of the 19th century. The name of the area refers to the many rabbits and hares that live there, a male rabbit or hare is a rattle.

A location with a strong story. Be sure to take some time to take in the scenery. Information board provides information about iron ore: About 7 million years ago, the coastline was much further inland. The sea deposited sand in this area. This layer of sand comes to the surface in Diest and is therefore called Diestiaan. Glauconite is found in Diestian. Weathering converts this glauconite into iron oxide. At the end of the 19th century, several people were employed in the open iron ore mines in Beringen, Paal and Kwaadmechelen. A railway line carried the ore from Gerhoeven across the stream to Hovesteen. The ore was used in the Ruhr area and in the Liège smelters to make rails. Because the iron content here was too low, iron mining in the Kempen disappeared by the turn of the century. So once upon a time there was economic activity in this peaceful location. Fortunately, we enjoy the peace and nature that has reclaimed everything from iron mining.