Expedition Site 2, Expedition 3, March 7th 2009, Belgium

I went somewhere in the belgian Ardennes (bulge is the correct translation) with my brother-in-law to have a fun day of taking pictures. Object of our interest this time was an old castle . We arranged to meet a couple of folks from the Netherlands with the same passion that is called urbex photography. Some had to drive really long and far for which they deserve all the credits!
The target was an old and decayed castle called Château Miranda, but is commonly known as Château Noisy.

 

Château Noisy is a castle in the belgian Ardennes. It was built in 1866 and designed by an English Architect called Milner. During the french revolution the family Liederkerke-Beaufort left another castle nearby to live in a nearby farm. After the revolution the family ordered the architect in 1866 to design a summer residence. That was the Château Noisy. Right up to the second world war, the castle was occupied by the family. After the war the castle was bought off by the Belgian Railroad Company and used as an orphanage. As from 1970 it was used for outdoor activities for the children of the company. It is abandonned since 1991.

After the abandonment, the castle started to decay rapidly and at this point in 2009, almost all 500 windows in the castle are broken and some parts of the building have completely collapsed. The community where the castle stands has made an offer to purchase the castle to the family that still owns it; but up until today they won't sell the place. 

The castle is a loved location for Urbex photographers.

 

We were meeting the dutch people there around 10 a.m. so it was an early day that day. Once there we found that we needed to do a steep climb towards the castle to remain undetected. Since I had a cold that day (and the days following), the climb really gave me a headache. Once we reached the top of the climb and the castle was in our sights, my headache disappeared as I had taken a dozen aspirins in one gulp. The castle looked awesome and impressive. We took some pictures from the outside, but that was just a warming up as the real deal was to be found indoors.
I did some research on the place and found a few stories from other urbexers that have been there before us. Here are some exerpts:
"Yes, there is a caretaker and nice isn't in his vocabulary. The guy has a shotgun and judging from the shell casings around he's not afraid to use it!"
"The caretaker isn't a friendly bloke! Be very aware! He also has 2 dogs that don't like humans too much."
Also about the inside of the castle many things have come by:
"I am warning everybody that is planning to go there. The castle is life threatning at times. A partner of mine went right trough the floor..."
"In fact is to (emphasise the to) dangerous to go take pictures now"
"Only daredevils can go there now. It's a pity, but the château is about to collapse".

We found an entrance and carefully we entered the building. The decay was massive. It was in fact in really bad shape. We needed to be very carefull where we put our feet.
After about 10 minutes inside we heard cars coming over and a tractor. A member of our group had radios and alarmed the rest of the crew that people were coming. We pondered a bit what to do, but with all the stories we heard and read, we decided we wouldn't risk it (especially because we didn't know any good hiding places) and went back outside and away from the castle and pretended to be taking pictures of the surrounding forrest (which is beautiful by the way). We tought we were free and clear but we heard the tractor coming our way. We saw 3 guys coming up to us and we decided we would engage in a conversation as we didn't see a double barrel shotgun nor any dogs. After a while we found out the guys were lumberjacks and after they warned us about the castle we went on our way and so did they. In hindsight I think we were blessed with them as the caretaker probably knew they were there and that it wasn't necessary for him to come by to inspect the place.
Anyways, we went our way back into the castle off course and started shooting again. After a couple of hours and lots of pictures later we called it a day and went out the castle again and walked to the front and took our last pictures. Tired but fullfilled we went back home and were pride of yet another good urbex expedition.