Château d'Hougoumont (possibly originally Goumont or Gomont) is a walled manorial compound, situated at the bottom of an escarpment near the Nivelles road in the Braine-l'Alleud municipality, near Waterloo, Belgium.

This farmhouse consists of, encompassed by a high-standing wall, the main house, numerous barns, stables, a chapel, and several other features and buildings, including an orchard and garden.

[5] According to Sir Walter Scott who visited the battlefield in January 1816, "Hougoumont (a name bestowed, I believe, by a mistake of our great commander [Wellington], but which will certainly supersede the more proper one of Château-Goumont) is the only place of consideration which was totally destroyed".

A building had apparently been erected on the land as it was sold in 1536 to Pierre du Fief, attorney-general to the Council of Brabant, who subsequently enlarged the property considerably.

Ridder de Louville did not live in the château in 1815 but left the management to Antoine Dumonceau who laid out a splendid French formal garden.

In 2003 it was sold by Count Guibert d'Oultremont to the Belgian Region of Wallonia through an intercommunal cooperative society, Bataille de Waterloo 1815.

In June 1815 the château became an epicenter of fighting in the Battle of Waterloo as it was one of the first places where British and other allied forces faced Napoleon's Army.

Before the battle started, Hougoumont and its gardens, located on the allies' right flank, were garrisoned and fortified by the 1st Battalion, 2nd Nassau Regiment, with additional detachments of jägers and landwehr from von Kielmansegge's 1st (Hanoverian) Brigade.

[14][unreliable source] This attack led to one of the most famous skirmishes in the Battle of Waterloo — Sous-Lieutenant Legros, wielding an axe, managed to break through the north gate.

In a near-miraculous attack, Macdonell, a small party of officers and Sergeant James Graham fought through the melee to shut the gate, trapping Legros and about 30 other soldiers of the 1st Légère inside.

Du Plat's brigade of the King's German Legion was brought forward to defend the hollow way, which they had to do without any senior officers, who were then relieved by the 71st Foot, a Scottish light infantry regiment.

The first well was at La Belle Alliance "wherein we saw the bodies of eight men of the Imperial Guard of Napoleon; they had jumped down with their arms"; and the second probably at Hougoumont, "The French formed a battery by making holes in the garden-wall; here is another well, in which were found 73 men; the trees in the orchard were peppered very much; the ditch around this orchard was used as a battery, and hundreds killed; saw 84 other pieces of cannon taken from the enemy; they took home only 12 guns; counted 40 graves, containing English officers, in one acre of ground, resembling dung-heaps".

[22] The project was completed in June 2015 at a cost of £3m, with organisations including the Landmark Trust contributing to the funds in return for being allowed to rent part of the property (the Game Keeper's Cottage).

Charles, Prince of Wales, unveiled a memorial at Hougoumont on 17 June 2015 dedicated to the British soldiers who fought in the battle.