Winseler, woodland on the Belgian border and a railway turned cycle path

Winseler is the commune between Wiltz and the Belgian border, and the commune itself describes its 3,042 hectares as mainly woodland. STATEC gave it 1,590 residents on 1 January 2026, spread between Winseler and the villages of Berlé, Pommerloch, Doncols, Sonlez, Grümelscheid, Schleif and Noertrange. It belongs to the Upper Sûre nature park.

Small villages, long memories

For such a small place, the history the commune tells runs deep. Sonlez appears as Sonelar in an 8th-century document, the oldest record anywhere in the commune. Winseler turns up as Winzelar in 1310, and the commune thinks the name comes from Winizo, a Frank who may have settled here. Berlé is among the oldest parishes in the country and still shares a parish with Nothum, over the boundary in Lac de la Haute-Sûre.

The Battle of the Bulge hit hard. Noertrange was of real strategic value in 1944 and was completely destroyed, and Grümelscheid’s castle, badly damaged in the war, was pulled down some twenty years later.

A railway reborn as a cycle path

This is what I’d come for. On 30 August 1944 Belgian resistance fighters derailed a train on the Kautenbach-Bastogne line; services only resumed in August 1945, and the line closed for good on 23 September 1967. In 1984 the commune bought the land from CFL and, with the Ministry of Tourism, built a cycle path. Wiltz and Wincrange did the same, and today the route runs from Wiltz through Winseler and Schleif to Bastogne. It’s the sort of old-railway ride that Britons who know the Camel Trail or the Tissington Trail will recognise.

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On foot through the Wiltz valley

visitluxembourg suggests the Auto-Pédestre Winseler, 9.54 km and about 2 hours 45 minutes with 170 m of climbing. It starts at 27 Duerfstrooss, follows the Wiltz river and the woods towards Grümelscheid, and reaches Schleif, a hamlet of around ten people with a rest spot. There, the Téi vum Séi cooperative dries and processes teas and herbs grown in the nature park. The way back follows the cycle path.

Walking sticks and a wolf

Two local stories stayed with me. Gremlischter are oak walking sticks which, Winseler says, were created here by a shepherd from Knaphoscheid called Joseph Mellang. In the 1930s an Englishman wanted to buy 15,000 of them, and the tiny Doncols workshop had to say no. The other is the ‘Donkelser Wollef’, a pedlar from Bras who settled in Doncols and wandered about wearing a wolf skin as a hat.

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Where to stay

STATEC counted one hotel in Winseler in 2025, so this is day-trip territory rather than a base, best combined with Wiltz on the same outing. I’d look in Wiltz or in Esch-sur-Sûre, by the lake.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Esch-sur-Sûre and pick one that fits your day.

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