Höhlenweg (Cave Trail) in Engelskirchen (Foray #14) – Bergisches Land Nature Park

Nice tour in search of the dwarf village, which was designed with a lot of love. Various information boards about the caves in Oberbergisch rounded off the whole thing...

Pretty nature tour with beautiful views in the first part and crisp climbs. A lot of asphalt in the second half

The caves near Engelskirchen in the Bergisches Land are the subject of this circular hiking trail, which is marked as Bergischer Streifzug and replaces the bird trail that has now been closed. The wind hole, the Aggertal cave and - for the right overview - the Haldyturm are the main attractions along the delightful route. The starting point of the Bergisch foray is the Ründeroth train station on the Oberbergische Bahn route from Cologne via Rösrath, Overath, Gummersbach and Meinerzhagen to Lüdenscheid. From the train station we walk past the catholic church to Agger, which we cross on a pedestrian bridge. We then keep right behind the Agger. We follow the Aggertal to Stiefelhagen, a small village that belongs to Engelskirchen. The climb to the Haldyturm takes place from Stiefelhagen. The 18m high Haldyturm was built in 1903 in honor of the district administrator Richard Haldy (1885 to 1899 district administrator of the then Gummersbach district). From the Haldyturm there is a good view of Ründeroth and the Aggertal. The cave path leads us from the Haldyturm to shortly before Müllensiefen. Then we head west again in a hairpin and we hike through the wooded ridge above the Aggertal to the Mühlenberg. In Mühlenberg, the wind hole was explored for the first time in 2019, a labyrinthine karst cave system which, with a documented total length of over 6,000 meters, is the largest cave in the Rhineland and is classified as a giant cave system. You cannot enter the wind hole, but you can do so at the next cave: The Aggertal cave is a show cave. It was created by washing out the rock and is around one kilometer long with a maximum difference in altitude of 31 meters. Almost 300 meters of the Aggertal cave can be visited. The temperature in the cave is only 8 ° Celsius all year round. This should be taken into account when choosing clothes. From the Aggertal cave we continue to hike through the forest until we reach the Aggertal again (and with it the L 136 road). We then walk parallel to the Agger back through Ründeroth to the breakpoint and pass the old town hall and the Protestant church

Beautiful circular trail starting at the floodplain of the Agger, with varied forest paths, a view of the Oberbergisches region from the Haldyturm, a dwarf village and lots of interesting facts about the caves in the area.

An appointment was canceled at short notice and this provided an opportunity for a foray into the Bergisches Land, which is described as follows: “Gently rolling hills, meadows, forests and remote valleys with rushing streams, dams and small villages with idyllic streets and half-timbered houses - that's what it is Bergische Land. Numerous local and industrial history museums, palaces, fortresses and churches bring the region's history and culture back to life. What could be more beautiful than exploring this landscape, largely located in the nature park, on foot?" (https://www.bergisches-wanderland.de/) The tour started in Ründeroth, a district of the municipality of Engelskirchen in the Oberberg district. The place, also known as the “Pearl of the Aggertal”, was first mentioned in 1174 as Ruinede Rodhe and was Oberberg's No. 1 tourist destination for decades. The cave trail is one of the themed trails in the Bergisches Hiking Region. In 2019, after 20 years of searching, researchers found an entrance to a cave that they suspected was in Mühlenberg near Ründeroth (discoverer of the cave: Stefan Voigt). In this cave, known as the "wind hole", they discovered a cave system of incredible dimensions, crystals, limestone formations and impressive cavities that no one had ever entered before. At more than 8000 m, the "Windloch" is the largest cave in North Rhine-Westphalia and is therefore one of the top 10 in Germany (https://www.gd.nrw.de/ge_ev_hoehle-windloch.htm). The cave is not open to the public. On this cave trail, foray no. 14, which opened in 2020, you can get to know the work of speleologists using the information boards and audio stations. The highlight of the hike was the Haldyturm, which offers a great panoramic view of Ründeroth and the surrounding area. This observation tower was built in 1903 in honor of District Administrator Haldy (district administrator of the then Gummersbach district from 1885 to 1899) (https://www.bergisches-wanderland.de/poi/ outlooksturm-haldyturm) Information: At the 10th Bergisches Hiking Week (https://www.bergisches-wanderland.de/bergisches-wanderland/bergische-wanderwoche) a guided cave hike under the title “Adventure hike under the spell of the Ründeroth Giant Cave” will be offered on May 5th, 2024. https://www.bergisches-wanderland.de/event/erlebniswandel-im-bann-der-ruenderother-riesenhoehle Refreshments in Ründeroth include: Butcher Claudius, Hauptstr. 25 Opening times snack bar: Monday to Friday: 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m Müller Bakery, Hauptstrasse 24 Opening hours: Mon to Fri 5:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Sat. 5:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Sun and public holidays 7:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m

Today we have hiked one of the Bergische Streifzüge again for a long time, the cave path in Ründeroth. The path is signposted with the white number 14 on a red background. We parked 🅿️ in Ründeroth at the 🚉 train station, which is also the start and finish of the tour. From the train station you cross the main street and get to the Kurpark and from there you are quickly in the directly adjacent forest area🌳🌳🌳. Here you first walk along the Agger until you reach information board B (there are 10 of these along the route) uphill to the Haldyturm. Once there, you can climb the 18m high tower built in 1903 over 92 steps and enjoy a wonderful view of Ründeroth and the Bergisches Land from above. Now the path leads downhill again through beautiful deciduous forest. Once at the bottom, the path leads along the Walbach and then back up to the Mühlenberg. At info board G is the "wind hole" discovered in 2019, an entrance to hell after researchers searched for 20 years. At the dwarf village you change sides of the road, follow it for a short distance before heading back through the forest to Aggertalhölle. Here you have 2 options a: to visit the Aggertal Cave (duration approx. 45min, cave temperature 6-8°C) or b: to strengthen yourself in the Burger Werk 🍔🍟🍺🧃. From here you first follow the forest path, after about 1km you reach the entrance to Ründeroth. Now the hike is slowly coming to an end, you cross the street again at the old people's home and go first to the right and then past behind the home. Now you come back to the Agger and get back to the starting point of the tour. Conclusion: A great hike with 2 highlights and beautiful forest passages. For the visit of the cave you should bring time and something warm to wear.

Today we started our new group project: the Bergische Streifzüge. I've done all of them before (see https://www.komoot.com/de-de/collection/1099576/-bergische-streifzuege), but of course I'm happy to support the city dwellers @Kathleensche 🚶‍♀️ and @deliabtzt in exploring my Bergisches Land 😉 Our first tour was the cave trail in Ründeroth. We started the whole thing at the Aggertalhöhle, which we had previously visited on a guided tour. I had never done that before and can highly recommend it to everyone! It was very interesting, impressive and informative. I've also added a few pictures of the tour to this tour here 🙃 We then started the circular trail together with a few raindrops. Actually a really nice little loop. In Ründeroth there are beautiful paths along the Agger. The path through the old quarry at the Haldey Tower and the tower itself are just as much a highlight as the path from there back to Ründeroth. From there you go over the Mühlenberg, under which the huge cave called "Windloch" lies, back to the starting point. Before that, however, you pass an incredibly beautifully designed dwarf village 🤩 Thanks to the information boards on the tour, you can also learn a lot about caves (research) 🙃 I can highly recommend the tour in combination with the cave tour to everyone!

A new major project was started today: we want to complete all of the Bergisches Land excursions with our local hiking guide @Christitan and @deliabtzt.💞 I have already discovered a few isolated ones, and today we continued with the cave trail in Engelskirchen. Contrary to the planned starting point, we started directly at the Aggertalhöhle, as we wanted to visit the cave with a guided tour first. The tours have just started again this week and are so worthwhile! Super interesting and impressive to see what is hidden underground in the Bergisches Land, amazing! 🤩🦇 More information and opening times: http://www.aggertalhoehle.de Then the beautiful hiking tour began, with a few more highlights: a great riverside path along the Agger, a viewing platform on the Haldyturm, a great view of the Bergisches Land from the Mühlenberg, past another cave "Windloch" (which cannot be visited, however, in order to preserve the original nature), to the enchanting dwarf village. That was a really sweet highlight at the end of our tour, designed with so much love, great! 🥰 Great, highly recommended tour in the beautiful, green Bergisches Land! 🍃🌳