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It is still debated whether the primary control on the middle Pleistocene denudation of the uplifted Ardennes massif (western Europe) is tectonic or climatic. Here, based on geomorphological observations, we calculate the amount of river incision and interfluve denudation in the Meuse basin upstream of Maastricht since 0· 7 Ma and we show that the main response to tectonic forcing was incision. This allows us to provide first-order estimates of the tectonic and climatic contributions to the denudation of the Ardennes. From a dataset of 71 remnants of a terrace level dated∼ 0· 7 Ma, we first derive a basin-scale functional relationship linking incision with distances to the regional base level (L c) and to the source (L s) in the Ourthe basin (pertaining to the Ardennian part of the Meuse basin). Expressed as I= I 0*(1–a* L c b/L s c), I 0 being the incision measured at the basin outlet, this relationship calculates that river …