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Belgium Belgium forest

Meerdaal

No machine-readable author provided. Janter~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims · Public domain

72% trees around it and 1,500 species recorded.

66Forestyas Score

ForestFungiBirdsWildlife

  • trees within 3 km72%
  • wild within 10 km55%
  • species recorded1,500
  • Altitude120 m

The forest around

72% trees.

Read like the rings of a cut trunk: from the centre out, the land within 1, 3, 6 and 10 km, coloured by what covers it.

Trees 99%Grassland 1%Trees 68%Grassland 14%Cropland 14%Built-up 4%Trees 39%Grassland 20%Wetland 0%Water 1%Cropland 33%Built-up 8%Trees 30%Grassland 18%Water 0%Cropland 40%Built-up 11%72%trees · 3 km

Trees, ring by ring

  • 0–1 km99%
  • 1–3 km68%
  • 3–6 km39%
  • 6–10 km30%

What covers the land (1–3 km)

  • Trees68%
  • Grassland14%
  • Water0%
  • Cropland14%
  • Built-up4%

ESA WorldCover 2021 (10 m, from Sentinel satellites), sampled every 120 m. A clearing, a road or a lake counts as what it is.

Who lives here

1,500 species recorded.

The plants, fungi, birds and mammals people have recorded here most often.

Pill sedge
Pill sedgeCarex pilulifera2,689 recordsKristian Peters -- Fabelfroh 11:03, 8 May 2007 (UTC) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Wood Anemone
Wood AnemoneAnemone nemorosa2,643 recordsEpgrande · CC BY 4.0
Hairy woodrush
Hairy woodrushLuzula pilosa2,548 recordsDaderot · Public domain
Whortleberry
WhortleberryVaccinium myrtillus2,122 recordsUnknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0
American milletgrass
American milletgrassMilium effusum2,108 recordsJames K. Lindsey · CC BY-SA 3.0
Heather
HeatherCalluna vulgaris2,107 recordsUnknown author · Public domain
Bracken
BrackenPteridium aquilinum2,096 recordsStefan.lefnaer · CC BY-SA 4.0
Wood-sorrel
Wood-sorrelOxalis acetosella2,035 recordsJörg Hempel · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Purple moor-grass
Purple moor-grassMolinia caerulea1,805 recordsElke Freese · CC BY-SA 3.0
Lily-of-the-valley
Lily-of-the-valleyConvallaria majalis1,683 recordsIvar Leidus · CC BY-SA 4.0
European honeysuckle
European honeysuckleLonicera periclymenum1,676 recordsLuc Viatour · CC BY-SA 3.0
Woodland germander
Woodland germanderTeucrium scorodonia1,571 recordsFrank Vincentz · CC BY-SA 3.0

Open records within 5 km (GBIF, licensed for any use). Busy places are better recorded than remote ones.

In numbers

The forest, measured.

66out of 100

Our own rating, from open data only: tree cover (40 points), wildness (20), species recorded (30) and protection or heritage (10).

  • 72%Treesof the land within 3 km
  • 55%Wildno towns or farmland within 10 km
  • 1,500Speciesrecorded more than once within 5 km
  • 120 mAltitudeabove the sea

When to walk

Best for walking in May and in September.

How good each month is for a walk: mild days and little rain make the bar taller.

  1. Jan5°0°69 mm
  2. Feb6°0°62 mm
  3. Mar10°1°56 mm
  4. Apr15°4°40 mm
  5. May19°8°60 mm
  6. Jun22°12°63 mm
  7. Jul24°14°74 mm
  8. Aug23°13°79 mm
  9. Sep20°10°54 mm
  10. Oct15°7°61 mm
  11. Nov10°3°68 mm
  12. Dec6°1°77 mm
  • Bar: walking comfort; the number on top is the average maximum.
  • Below: average minimum (NASA, 1991–2020).
  • Rain: monthly total.

The place

Meerdaal.

Forest in Oud-Heverlee, Flemish Brabant, Belgium

Meerdaal is a forest in Belgium.

Seen from space, 72% of the land within 3 km is trees, and 55% of the land within 10 km has no towns or farmland.

1,500 species have been recorded around it: 986 plants, 199 fungi, 284 birds and 31 mammals.

The most recorded plants are: Pill sedge, Wood Anemone and Hairy woodrush.

The best time to walk is in May and in September.

Autumnforest2
No machine-readable author provided. Janter~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims · Public domain

Get there and walk

Plan the visit

A guided walk, a bed nearby, a car.

Car hire at BRU airport (Zaventem)Discover CarsSee prices 

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

From above

The forest and its surroundings.

The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the place, with the trails, notable trees, picnic sites and huts that OpenStreetMap shows.

Meerdaal seen from above (Sentinel-2)
Seen from above: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6 × 6 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Around, in OpenStreetMap

  • 186marked trails within 5 kmGRP 127 Tour du Brabant Wallon, GR 121 De Liège à Bruxelles, Streek-GR Dijleland and 183 more
  • 13named and notable trees within 6 kmVrijheidsboom 1830, Dikke Eik, Amerikaanse eik and 10 more
  • 87picnic sites within 4 kmDe Stenen tafel, Zoete Waters and 85 more
  • 112shelters and huts within 6 kmSchuilhut Mollendaal and 111 more
  • 6viewpoints within 5 kmA-Panorama, Vogelkijkwand, Uitkijktoren Dijlevallei and 3 more
  • 65car parks within 3 km
  • 9campsites within 10 kmSteenberg Meerdaalwoud Oud-Heverlee, De Kluis, Camping de Nethen and 6 more
  • 82places to stay within 10 kmBremberg, Rode Haas, Bed and Breakfast Tussen kunst en konfituur and 79 more
  • 15restaurants and cafés within 3 km
  • visitor centres within 6 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.

In our other atlases

Around Meerdaal.

The mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and canyons around this forest, the viewpoints above it, the birds and the night sky, in the family's atlases.

Peakyas25 mountains within 25 km
Tomberg102 m · 0.5 kmGasthuisberg78 m · 8.6 kmSpeelberg82 m · 13 kmBeninksberg59 m · 18 kmKorenberg35 m · 20 kmBalenberg13 m · 22 kmCoudenberg - Koudenberg24 kmMont aux Potences - Galgenberg81 m · 24 km
Darkskyas4 dark-sky places within 30 km
former observatory of BrusselsBortle 9 · 24 kmRoyal Observatory of BelgiumBortle 8 · 24 kmBrussels PlanetariumBortle 9 · 27 kmBeersel Hills ObservatoryBortle 8 · 28 km

Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.

Photographs

The forest, as people saw it.

Sneeuw in Meerdaalbos - 372688 - onroerenderfgoed
Vandevorst, Kris · CC BY 4.0
Sneeuw in Meerdaalbos - 372695 - onroerenderfgoed
Vandevorst, Kris · CC BY 4.0

Other forests nearby.

Meerdaal

Belgium

  • 66Forestyas Score
  • 72%Trees
  • 55%Wild
  • 1,500Species

Sonian Forest

Belgium · 18 km

  • 76Forestyas Score
  • 80%Trees
  • 71%Wild
  • 1,917Species

See the guide

Peerdsbos

Belgium · 54 km

  • 71Forestyas Score
  • 72%Trees
  • 68%Wild
  • 1,466Species

See the guide

Hertogenwald

Belgium · 97 km

  • 85Forestyas Score
  • 86%Trees
  • 96%Wild
  • 593Species

See the guide

Where these figures come from

Name and typeWikidata (Q2566540) · CC0
Land coverESA WorldCover 10 m 2021 v200 · © ESA WorldCover project / Copernicus Sentinel data · CC BY 4.0
Species502,827 open records within 5 km (GBIF, CC0 and CC BY 4.0 only)
See these recordsgbif.org
Names and photosWikidata (CC0); GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
AltitudeCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Temperature and rainNASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2)
What is around© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Sister atlasesPeakyas, Darkskyas

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Visit mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Visit islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Visit riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.Visit canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Visit cavesCavernyasEvery cave with its real depth and length: the rock above, the temperature inside all year, and how to visit.Visit dark skiesDarkskyasWhere the night is still dark: the sky of every place, the Milky Way month by month, the Moon, eclipses and auroras.Visit
viewpointsViewyasEvery viewpoint with its real 360° panorama: the peaks you can name, how far you see and where the sun sets.Coming soonVisit
birdwatchingBirdyasEvery bird sanctuary and wetland with the species recorded month by month: who is resident, who comes for the summer, who only passes through.Visit
forestsForestyasEvery forest with its land-cover rings, what grows and lives in it, and the best months to walk it.You are here