Waterkant Route

The walk starts at Wippehoek in Woesten. From the car park, you immediately enter a green landscape of woodland, meadows, hayfields and ponds. There is also a small play wood and a few benches close to the start, making it an easy place to spend a little more time after the walk.

Country paths then lead towards the Poperingevaart. In the 14th century, the waterway was widened to create a navigable link between Poperinge and the River Yser. Trading boats once used it, but difficult maintenance, shallow water and recurring water shortages eventually brought that role to an end.

Today, part of the route follows the water on an unpaved path through open countryside. The water stays beside you for a while as most of the buildings disappear from view.

Following the Poperingevaart brings you to the turn-off for Gwalia Cemetery. The nearby farm was used as an aid post from late June 1917 and was given the name Gwalia Farm by the British. The site later developed into a larger hospital complex.

After visiting the cemetery, you return towards the water and continue to the Elverdingseweg. A short stretch of road is followed by Beleedstraat and more unpaved paths leading towards Galgebossen.

Here, the rural landscape and First World War history sit side by side without feeling like separate parts of the route. The cemetery belongs to the same landscape that once contained the medical infrastructure behind the front.

Galgebossen is a peaceful woodland today, but its name points to a much darker past. Until the early 1700s, gallows stood here for people sentenced to death.

During the First World War, the woods largely escaped the destruction suffered by many other wooded areas around Ypres. The British Army used the area as a base and called it Dirty Bucket Camp, a reference to the nearby inn De Vuile Seule. There was a hut used for Church of England services and a small cinema, while the nearby Hospitaalhoeve served as a medical aid post.

The Plankenroute, or Plank Road, connected the woods with Vlamertinge and the route towards the front. Walking here today, very little still suggests how much military activity once took place in this area.

After Galgebossen, the route leaves the woodland and follows paved country roads towards Canada Farm Cemetery. The cemetery takes its name from a nearby farm that was turned into a field hospital by the British and became known as Canada Farm.

Most of the soldiers buried here died of their wounds in the nearby field hospital. The cemetery was established in June 1917, during the Battle of Messines, and used until the end of the Third Battle of Ypres in November that year. A few more graves were added later.

From here, the loop returns to Wippehoek. After almost twelve kilometres, you finish in the same green surroundings where the walk began.