Bourscheid, a colossal castle, three valleys and the Sûre's finest viewpoints

Bourscheid is a plateau commune sliced by three deep valleys, those of the Blees, the Sûre and the Wark. According to the local Syndicat d’Initiative, five of its villages sit up top between 400 and 500 metres and three lie down by the rivers, with altitudes running from 206 metres on the Sûre to 513 at the highest point. It has 1,784 residents and 36.86 km², and although it belongs to the canton of Diekirch, visitluxembourg places it in the Éislek.

A name born in a forest clearing

The commune explains that the village began in the 7th or 8th century, when settlers burned a clearing in the Ardennes forest beside a stream. The name supposedly comes from that, «bour» for burning and «scheid» for a clearing with water. For protection they built a refuge on a rocky spur, which grew into Bourscheid Castle, and by around 1100 Bertram of Bourscheid appears as its lord. Between 1851 and 1981 the commune lost 1,027 residents to emigration and the rural exodus, and it has been growing again since.

Viewpoints, the best way to see the castle

Here the castle is as much for looking at as for visiting. The Gringlee, also spelled Gringlay, above Bourscheid-Moulin, is one of the best-known viewpoints in the country according to Visit Éislek, with the Sûre’s meander below, the castle beyond, picnic benches and paragliders launching from the edge. There’s no road up. The Schleedbësch, by contrast, frames the castle with the river’s bend at Bourscheid-Moulin.

The quirkiest is the Napoleonsknäppchen, the commune’s highest point. In Napoleon I’s day a liberty tree was planted here, a lime that German soldiers used as a lookout in the First World War. It was felled in May 1940, and from its trunk the sculptor Constant Stehres carved a statue of St Willibrord that was installed in Bourscheid church on 2 August 1942. On 22 November 1941 villagers secretly planted a new lime, which still stands beside a viewing platform with a telescope.

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Walks for every level

The Bourscheid auto-pédestre, 5.88 km and easy, drops through the woods to the Féischterhaff farm in a meander, climbs to the castle and finishes at the Schleedbësch viewpoint. The Éislek Pad Bourscheid, 14.81 km and difficult, heads for the Napoleonsknäppchen and the Doigt de Dieu, a row of rust-coloured rock spires above Dirbach. And the Lee Trail of the Escapardenne runs through the commune, with Bourscheid-Moulin at the end of its first stage.

A darker chapter

visitluxembourg devotes a page to the Hougeriicht, the lordship’s high court. Around the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries it tried six people for witchcraft, and two women, one from Michelau and one from Kehmen, were burned at the stake on the court’s hill. It’s a reminder of the witch hunts that swept the duchy between 1560 and 1683.

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Sleeping and getting around

For 2025, STATEC lists five campsites and four hotels or similar establishments in the commune, more than in the whole town of Diekirch. visitluxembourg places several cafés, restaurants and hotels at Bourscheid-Moulin by the river, and below the castle lies the hamlet of Bourscheid-Plage. The commune has two CFL stations, Michelau and Goebelsmühle, and bus 135 stops at «Beim Schlass». If it’s full, try hotels in Diekirch.

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