Terril 11/19 de Loos-en-Gohelle
The twin conical terrils of Loos-en-Gohelle, just five kilometres from Lens, are the tallest slag heaps in Europe at 186 metres — and climbing them rewards you with a panorama that stretches on clear days all the way to the Flemish plain and the Artois hills. They are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a surprisingly moving place.
The Climb and the View
A well-maintained gravel path spirals up the larger cone in about 25 minutes of steady walking. The gradient is gentle enough for families but the exposure near the summit — open sky in every direction, wind in your face — feels genuinely dramatic for such a flat region.
From the top you can see Lens's stadium (Stade Bollaert-Delelis) to the east, the Louvre-Lens pavilions glinting to the south, and on exceptional days the outline of Arras cathedral to the southwest. It reframes the entire Pas-de-Calais basin in a single glance.
Ecology and Heritage on the Slopes
The terrils were closed to mining in 1986 and nature has colonised them fast — birch and rowan trees cling to the lower slopes, and the black shale is threaded with wild orchids in May and June. Kestrels hunt the upper cone year-round.
Information panels at the base explain the mining history in French and English, and the nearby Maison du Terril visitor centre in Loos-en-Gohelle offers guided night walks in summer when the silhouette of the twin cones against a sunset sky is genuinely unforgettable.
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