The forest area of 50 hectares is located on the territory of the municipality of Geraardsbergen (boroughs Moerbeke and Grimminge), near the provincial border with Galmaarden in Flemish Brabant.

A steep cobblestone climb bisects the forest and transitions to an ancient Roman road at the top, famously known as the final straight in the Tour of Flanders.

In a clockwise direction, more than a kilometer from the summit, you'll find the hamlets of Bruinsbroek, Sint-Paulus, Atembeke, Onkerzele, and Boskant.

The landscape is adorned with a finely woven network of field copses, hedgerows, old hawthorn hedges, thickets, pollarded willows, and flower-rich sunken lanes.

Kolenwoud formed a wedge between the rich cultivated lands of South Flanders and Hainaut on the one hand and Hesbaye on the other.

Still in the forest is the smaller Miss Chapel, popularly known as 't Iffraken or 't Uffraken, dedicated to Saint Apollonia.

It was the meeting point between St. Adriaan's Abbey in Geraardsbergen, Cistercian convent of Beaupré in Grimminge, and Dominicans of Atembeke.

During the revolt of the people of Ghent in the 14th century, at the time of Jacob and Philip van Artevelde, the rebels found support among some farmers from Geraardsbergen and Ronse regions.

Thus, a gang of robbers was formed who, from the forest, carried out numerous raids in the castles of Ath, Lessines, and Flobecq.

The rich population of raptors in Raspaillebos – buzzards, kestrels, meadowlarks, hawks, and little owls – attests to a healthy food pyramid in the forest.

Raspaillebos is home to tawny owls, red squirrels, weasels, ermines, polecats, foxes, and roe deer.

Where hedges and willow rows adorn the landscape, these will be preserved for ecological and cultural-historical reasons, and the small-scale structure will be further enhanced by extensive grazing.

In 2001, the Raspaillebos was included (together with Bos t'Ename and Everbeeks Wood [Everbeekse bossen]) in the LIFE program of the European Union.