Spanbroekmolenkrater

This water-filled crater is what remains of the largest of 19 British mines detonated at 3:10 am on 7 June 1917 to launch the Battle of Messines, when 41,000 kg of explosives packed 27 meters underground blew a hole 75 meters wide and over 12 meters deep. Bought in 1929 by Lord Wakefield to preserve it as a battlefield memorial, it is known today as the Pool of Peace.

The blast came fifteen to thirty seconds behind schedule, and the delay proved costly: fearing the mine was a dud, men of the Royal Irish Rifles had already climbed out of their trenches when the ground finally erupted beneath them, and several were killed by their own mine's blast and falling debris. Some of them are buried across the road at Lone Tree Cemetery. Most of the craters left by that morning's mines were later filled in or lost to farmland; this one, the largest, is among the few still intact. Piecing together the site took Lord Wakefield years of negotiation with six separate landowners, and in 1933 he sold it on for a symbolic one franc to the Talbot House Association, the Poperinge-based soldiers' welfare charity that still owns it today.

From riders

What you'll see

A ring of trees and a footpath surround the pool, with the headstones of Lone Tree Cemetery visible just across the road.

Practical

Open daily with free entry.

wo1.be/nl/db/sites/kraters

Checked 13 August 2026

Wwi historyMine craterMemorial