Alouette Quarry

L’Alouette is a quarry, now abandoned, on land that forms part of the village of Menil-Favay, and was first worked in 1899. Unlike the region’s other quarries, which extract limestone, L’Alouette quarried a layer of often extremely hard Eifelian sandstone (quartzite) some twenty metres thick. The quarry no doubt started out producing the fieldstone, rough or dressed, used in the construction of buildings in the village of Ménil-Favay. The quarry also produced aggregates for road-building, as witnessed by the remains of the crushing units still partially visible on the site. After quarrying was abandoned, the quarry was purchased by the municipality of Hotton (1983) and was used for some time as a tip (1985). In 2012, the site was officially declared a stateowned nature reserve (RND). Local wildlife is protected, and visitors are asked not to pick flowers or disturb the peace and quiet of the site. Sheep and goats are regularly pastured here as a natural means of keeping the grass under control and thereby preserving the site’s biodiversity. The quarry marks the point of contact with the limestone rocks already visible on the north face of the quarry. This point where sandstone, consisting for the most part of quartz, meets limestone, mostly consisting of calcite, is one of the factors explaining the outstanding flora to be found here, with a particular wealth of orchids. The site is also home to a number of reptiles and no fewer than 34 different species of diurnal butterflies. The quarry looks down over the Agauche valley, and some of the spoil from the old workings has diverted the course of the water, maskinga swallow-hole connected to the underground river that flows through the Caves of Hotton.