Müllerthal is Everywhere

As soon as someone in a group of hikers mentions Echternach or Luxembourg's Little Switzerland, another one will mumble Müllerthal.

We wanted to find out - and discovered that Müllerthal describes an area, or feeling, rather than just a simple trail. Having said this, there is a signposted Müllerthal trail, which consists of three connected major loops, totalling more than 110 kilometers. There is an official website of this trail and hotels and tourist infos will readily supply you with a map. Inevitably, you will be forced to pick and chose your portions of the trail that you want to hike in a single day, especially if you wish to hike a smaller loop. You'll find out that there are countless other bits and pieces of trail strewn around the Echternach area, that are as good as the original signposted path. Müllerthal is everywhere.

If you travel with a GPS, we recommend to use a map such as the freely avaiable OSM-based Freizeitkarte BEL_NLD_LUX. This map has rather accurate positions of the various cliffs and attractions, as well as footpaths, and enables you to construct your own route.

This trail touches the original Müllerthal village, which today is an assemblage of restaurants. You may start the trail in Müllerthal, or - as we did - at a hiker's parking near Consdorf. The trail is interesting throughout, without any boring parts. This also makes the hike quite time consuming, as you will frequently stop for admiring the cliffs and taking photographs, and not least because there is a lot of up and down on stairs and sometimes ladders. With under 10 kilometer, this trail will take the better of a day for the average hiker.

From the Consdorf parking lot, the trail begins with a short but steep ascent to the Burgkapp cliff (way-point 2). As with many of the cliffs in the area, there are always side trails that explore the cliffs, their top, or the cracks.

The trails below the cliffs usually offer more dramatic views than those above them.

You also pass the Schelmenlay (lay meaning rock) at way-point 5, and the Rammelay at way-point 6.

Note that there has been a serious storm in early 2018, and some sections of the larger Müllerthal got damaged. By June 2018, a few sections remained unpassable - on our trail the bridge at way-point 12 was gone. Authorities had signposted a deviation (starting at way-point 11), but we preferred to follow our plan and waded through the stream.

If busy restaurants are not your thing, save you supplies for a picnic at way-point 15, which has a lofty shelter, and is about half way through our trail.

Soon after you arrive at the photogenic Schiessentümpel at way-point 17 - a waterfall of three little streams, which is pictured on many brochures of the area.

Two absolute highlights of the trail are still to come: the Eulenburg (owls castle) at way-point 19, and the Goldfralay at way-point 20. Both have a system of cracks and tunnels, with surprises at every turn. It is good to bring a light (smartphone or similar). The roundtrip at the Goldfralay (up and down)was so interesting, I did it twice!

While we recommend the route published here, note that GPS recording in terrain with steep valleys and along cliffs can be quite inaccurate, due to a loss of signal. We therefore recommend to check the downloaded route against the trails of the map.