Roc de la Tour, le « château du Diable »

Monthermé

Above the valley of the Semoy, at 408 metres, the Roc la Tour raises in the Ardennes forest three quartzite towers of seven to eight metres and a rock face of ten to fifteen metres, set on a chaos of scree. This silhouette of a ruined fortress has earned it the nickname of the "Devil's Castle". Legend tells that a penniless lord sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for a castle to be finished before cockcrow; misled by the din and the lights of the imps' building site, a neighbouring cock crowed too early, and the furious Devil destroyed the building with a blow of his cloven hoof, scattering the stones as far as the Semoy, where they formed the rapids of Phades. A variant has a pilgrim challenging Satan to a stone-throwing duel. The site is also a prehistoric deposit of the first rank: a Magdalenian halt of the 13th millennium BC, then a Mesolithic occupation some three thousand years later, have been identified here; discovered in 1970, the deposit was excavated from 1980 to 1986 under the direction of Jean-Georges Rozoy, and the finds are kept at the Musée de l'Ardenne in Charleville. Climbers today have some forty routes, and the viewpoint overlooks the village of Haulmé.

Getting there : From Monthermé (rue de la Lyre), road then waymarked forest paths; car park and picnic area on site, free access at all times

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound