Hougoumont Farm
Chem du Goumont 1,
1420 Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium
Visited in 2007
Whilst I’ve neglected to detail history around the Battle of Waterloo, Hougoumont Farm is well enough known that featuring a few shots of it are perhaps worthwhile. I took these whilst staying over with my sister and her husband in Brussels, and managed a side trip to the farm when visiting Waterloo with Johan Kees. A couple of years later I revisited the farm – or tried to – with Malcolm Cuming.
It was disappointing to find notices prohibiting visitors from going anywhere near to the farm, so I was lucky to get these shots and to actually walk round in 2007.
Bringing you up-to-date in 2025, the Farm was converted from an agricultural facility to be a hotel. It doesn’t have facilities to supply breakfast, and can only house five guests at a time. However I thought it might be an experience for a few friends to stop there, and I’ll add photos of how the farm looks now, and the refurbishments that have been undertaken.
I’ve included three shots of a model of the farm that’s over at the Waterloo museum. This depicts the farm as it would have looked in 1815, and whilst the buildings have been repaired and re-roofed since the battle, enough of the structure remains to see the layout and get a feel for the size of the farm and just how open the ground is around it.
Photo #1 shows a view from the approach to the farm and takes in the elevation shown in the third model shot, whilst photo #2 shows the side elevation of that same large barn.
In the model the smaller building at the front left has been reduced to boundary walls that are about two metres tall, whilst the larger middle building with its four buttresses ( there is a fifth one that isn’t as obvious on the model towards the right ) and the barn to it’s right is what remains.
Photo 3 looks to be a pretty ancient and dilapidated building, but seems to be hidden within the central courtyard on the model.
Whilst photos #4 and #5 show the skeletal and rather un-nerving trees that are off to the far right of the third model shot. In the close up of the trunk of one of the trees, there is still evidence of lead shot that has penetrated the trees during the battle, similar damage can be seen cratering some of the external walls at various points around the farm as well.
Photo #6 shows a view with my back to the trees, and takes in the elevation of the farm show in the second of the pictures of the model – I’d be standing off to the bottom left. In photo #6 the trees towards the right that are behind the wall are in the area of the model that depicts the garden area with the decorative hedges.
The difference with the farm compared to the battlefield of Waterloo is that there is a definite sense of desperation still to be felt. Whilst the land around the farm has more in the way of cover for attacking troops than the wide open fields just up the road where the main battle took place, I can imagine that defending the farm would have been real mayhem, with shot raining in from all sorts of directions. It’s one of only a few times that I’ve felt some connection to history – strange because I’ve visited many museums, castles and the like; this place just seems to have echoes attached to it.
As I’ve mentioned earlier in the article, the Farm buildings have now been renovated and turned into a hotel, so it would seem that you can not only visit this site, but stay over within the Gardeners Cottage which is beside the south gate.
The website for bookings is http://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/Properties-list/hougoumont-waterloo/Holiday
My thanks again to Johan Kees for taking spending the day with me at Waterloo and Hougoumont Farm – good memories of a day walking round such a historical site.
