The Schiessentümpel, the little waterfall that became an emblem

Some places are famous for being big and others for being photogenic. The Schiessentümpel is the second kind. It isn’t a mighty cascade; it’s a series of small drops on the Black Ernz between mossy rocks and ferns, with a little stone bridge on top. But the combination works so well that the regional tourist office calls it the most photographed place in the Mullerthal, and visitluxembourg calls it the region’s symbol.

A bridge that goes nowhere in particular

The odd thing about the bridge is that it isn’t really for anything, in the best sense. visitluxembourg notes that, unlike other big bridges, it has no transport role in Luxembourg, and yet it’s the emblem of the region. It was built in just four months, between 20 March and 27 July 1879, by a mason from Christnach, Jean-Pierre Prommenschenkel, in lime and sandstone. The wooden railing was added later and has been restored several times.

The bridge, or the middle of the river, marks the boundary between the communes of Waldbillig and Consdorf. So technically the Schiessentümpel is in both.

From wolf country to a tourist draw

The story visitluxembourg tells about why the bridge was built is really the story of tourism here. Before 1879 the area was hard to reach and dangerous, like a jungle, and people called it the land of wolves. In 1814 Joseph von Görres of Koblenz, who wrote for the Rheinischer Merkur, visited, and the Brussels journalist Victor Joly included it in a travel notebook. Those accounts made people in neighbouring countries curious, and the state improved the roads and railway. Grundhof got a station in 1873, work on the road from Grundhof to Müllerthal began in 1877 and the road on to Breitler was finished in 1881. The bridge arrived in the middle of all that.

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How do you get there?

There are two ways in on foot. From the Heringer Millen in the hamlet of Müllerthal, along local circuits W6 and W7, about a kilometre. Or from the big car park on the CR 121, between Müllerthal and the Breidweiler bridge junction, about 500 m away, either along the road or on Route 3 of the Trail heading for Müllerthal. By bus, free throughout Luxembourg, the Schiessentümpel (Parking) stop is about 500 m away, and the Mullerthal, Möllerdall and Mullerthal, Cascades stops about a kilometre.

I’d walk in from the Heringer Millen. It’s a short riverside stroll, and the waterfall appears at the end, which is the best way to see it.

On the Mullerthal Trail

Routes 2 and 3 of the Mullerthal Trail both pass here. In the operator’s six-stage plan, the waterfall opens two days. On the Müllerthal to Larochette stage, the path crosses the Black Ernz at the bridge, narrows above the stream and climbs a timber staircase of about 90 m that seems to float. visitluxembourg says the staircase was built from wood from the region’s forests, processed within 20 km, and that its railing reworks the cross pattern of the bridge. On the Müllerthal to Echternach stage, the path crosses the road by the falls and climbs into the woods towards the Eilebuerg and Goldfralee rocks.

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Beyond the falls, the tufa spring

If you carry on along Route 3 a little further, it pays off. After the staircase the path leaves the stream, climbs through the Paaschent woods and drops down another flight of steps to the small pool of the Kallektuffquell, a tufa spring. The Trail website describes a moss-covered rock from which water gushes and collects in a basin, with different colours in every season, reached along a 700 m timber boardwalk that runs beside the Black Ernz and crosses it several times. Further on come the Marscherwald, a marshy beech wood, the Rippsmuer raised bog and the Sonnenauer, a sundial carved into the rock. For me it’s one of the quietest stretches in the region.

Worth knowing

It’s small. Arrive expecting an Alpine torrent and you’ll be let down; come for the whole picture of water, rock, moss and bridge and you won’t. It draws plenty of people, as the size of the car park suggests, so I’d come early or midweek. There’s no ticket or opening time, and during the hunting season the trail operator recommends a quick look at geoportail.lu for shoots nearby.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Schiessentümpel on GetYourGuide.

If you would rather go at your own pace, see the car hire deals in Luxembourg: the earlier you book, the more cars are left to choose from.

Before you fix your dates, compare tickets to Luxembourg: the same journey can cost very different amounts from one day to the next.