Bakony basalt circle (PICK Burgundy circular route)

Itinerary

• From the Ajkai Mining Museum, follow the K+ mark all the way to the junction of the S-clearing and the B-clearing.
• At the junction, turn right onto the KT mark, which we follow to the Nyír Lake. Along the way, take a detour left on the nature trail to the Old-Köves Cave, then shortly after turn right to the M1 sinkhole.
• At the junction near Nyír Lake, turn right onto the S▲ mark and walk to the Sárcsi Well.
• From the Sárcsi Well, follow the S mark to the asphalt road after Pokol-lik.
• Turn right onto the asphalt road and walk along it to the nearby parking lot on the left side of the road, which is also a forest junction.
• At the junction, turn left onto the K↺ mark, which leads back to the Mining Museum.

Detailed tour description

From mining settlement to excursion site

Ajka is not a typical socialist industrial town: due to its beech forests and underground raw materials, it was already a key industrial center in the region in the second half of the 19th century. Glass manufacturing and brown coal mining started in the second half of the 19th century, and by the mid-20th century, metallurgical production also began. Some shafts of the deep coal mines opened in the side valleys of the Csinger Valley – our tour’s starting point commemorates these at the Mining Museum near the former Ármin Shaft. The open-air machinery collection can be seen beyond the fence, but it is worth examining the machine monsters closer, and also visiting the museum, which houses among others fossil and rock collections. The 54-meter gallery is also an attraction.

The tour begins on the K+ mark at the bottom of a shallow but steep-walled valley. Along the transport road stand some holiday homes; on the left, a ski and toboggan slope equipped with a lift opens up the forest. As is typical in mining towns, the local nature hiking section around Ajka was active from the early 20th century and laid the foundations of a hiking trail network enriched with rest areas, springs, and rain shelters still dense today. After a right turn, on the right side of the road, you can see the memorial stone of the mining accident in Ármin Shaft. In January 1909, the ventilation fan caught fire, and 55 of the 259 miners underground did not make it out. Coal extraction continued for a long time; the last mine closed in 2004. (The last coal cart is displayed in the museum; it was in use until 1980 when rubber belts began to be used for transport.)

At the end of the power line corridor, a forestry road bends left among the trees, and here stands the bivouac cabin built in 2022, whose southern front wall is made of glass, letting sunlight in. This is necessary because the three-story building’s walls are covered floor to ceiling with bookshelves, and its bunks provide a protected yet forest environment to lie down and read. After exploring inside and out, continue the tour on the K+ mark, which goes from mixed dark forest to a clearcut, and on the other side leads to one of the springs of the Köves-árok stream. We cross the erosion channel and climb a narrow old beech forest path to Joszerencsét Spring. Next to it are fireplaces, benches, and tables. Leaving the intermittent water flow, shortly afterwards we come out from under the trees: the trail is lost on the remains of a former wooded pasture, but we need to reach the wildlife protection fence drawn opposite, which is not a difficult task. At the base of the fence is a World War II soldier’s grave – according to the sign, a German soldier who died in March 1945.

Walk on the basalt karst

Along the fence, turn left and then sharply right at its corner, walking at the edge of young forest. Here we tread on the wide basalt cover of the massive shield volcano block of Kab Mountain. The hard rock surface slopes gently away from the peak, slightly furrowed, with no real valleys developing, making it comfortable yet monotonous terrain. We cross a high-tension power line corridor and turn left on the other side. At the forest edge, the trail meanders through dense undergrowth. Soon we turn sharply right; two benches opposite attract attention to the spectacle hidden in the dark acid beech forest: the huge cavity of the Macska-lik yawns at the bottom of a wide hollow.

The cavity bordered by thick rock ribs marks the boundary of the basalt layer formed by the former lava flow, where water reaches the limestone surface and dissolves it, vanishing underground. The opening can hold a large amount of water; after heavy rainfalls, the stream falls down in a waterfall over the high, rocky rim. Otherwise, the short valley ends dry here. A few meters ahead on the other side of the trail opens the Kis-Macska-lik, which is much harder to detect and mainly noticeable due to its hollow.

We swerve from the trees and continue the tour on a straight, wide forestry road (B clearing). On this, turn right onto the Bazaltkarszt nature trail KT mark. We follow for a long time the macadam path opening a wide corridor within the tall forest until a small sign indicates the nature trail turns left at a right angle.

After a slight ascent, the trail branches: take a short detour left to visit the next sinkhole. Among dense mixtures of pines and birches, on a carpet of needles, we arrive at the edge of the Old-Köves sinkhole cave. The vertical cavity enveloped by a lush environment and climbing plants does not open at the edge of the basalt cover: during the volcanic eruptions about 5 million years ago, the lava flow poured around a lonely limestone block here, which the rainwater dissolved over a long period on the hardened surface. The surface thus "dented," and the water flows underground. After rainy periods, the stream running in a narrow gorge disappearing underground is a very impressive sight. The 378 m long, 59 m deep cave system has multiple surface openings: at some points, the stream bed has shifted, so the water does not always reach the cliff. One shaft opens for example in a ditch opposite the information board, behind a mossy rock pile.

Walk back to the main branch of the nature trail, from which a much shorter detour to the right can be made a little earlier. The M1 sinkhole opening in the side of a huge hollow marked by a sign was formed similarly to its neighbor but lies in a more open forest. The nature trail continues parallel to the edge of the lava flow: frozen lava forms small terrain steps on our right, at the end (broken off by Ice Age frost) moss-covered basalt blocks lie on a closed hornbeam-beech forest floor. The hiking trail is still bordered for a long time, following the edge of the previous forest and a dark pine-mixed patch, then turning right at a right angle. Although the road continues at a clearcut border, the view is enhanced by the Torma meadow bordered with birches. A karst depression once deepened here from basalt dissolved by water and filled with clayey sediment. On the far side of the meadow, under the trees, a clogged sinkhole is still visible. To the left of the marked road, a small temporary pond fills a slight depression: the hollow is the remains of centuries of manual basalt mining, as are many of the scattered rock blocks.

The atmosphere of the Ajka recreational forest

At the end of the fence, turn right onto the S▲ mark, but it is worth looking left immediately: although naturally fitting into the wooded environment, the marshy, tussock-filled wetland of Nyír Lake, home to peat moss species, is artificially created like its neighbors. A long section follows without new clearcuttings, and watch the map as we cross gently undulating terrain with sharp turns. After crossing an asphalt road, a large rain shelter appears under the trees on the left. Next to it springs the plentiful Sárcsi Well, whose water runs into the valley bottom in the direction of Padragi Water. There, instead of a stream, we find a pleasant little forest lake with a dam at its end. It is a real excursion site: next to it are information boards, presentations of the mountain range's rocks and animal tracks cast in stone, several fire pits, benches and tables, toilets, and a forest football pitch.

It is worth resting at the Sárcsi Well before the last section of the tour, as there are still many kilometers left. We continue on the S mark, following the asphalt until the sharp right turn. At the clearing of the turn, together with the mark, turn left and follow the valley rim’s cliff. After the sharp right turn follows the next steep right turn, where we start the steep descent. The atmospheric, dense acid beech forest has a stepped trail made walkable and secured with handrails, winding downwards. Beside it under the trees opens the Pokol-lik. Although it seems small, it is 20 m long, and according to tradition, the local outlaw who was active at the end of the 19th century, Savanyó Jóska, hid here for a while. Being only 160 cm tall, he really could fit in this secluded, hidden cave.

The most beautiful section of the whole tour awaits in the descending Köleskepe valley. The path winds down the steep slope and ends beside a rest area from where a bridge leads out onto the asphalt road. (Turn right!) Sunlight barely reaches the narrow shaded valley; therefore, it is inhabited by beech forest whose climate is unusually old and natural for the area thanks to the stream. (The mark leads on the other side of the watercourse, under the trees, and if the undergrowth is not too high, it is worth choosing this.) The pleasant forest road following the stream has the László Spring, supplying the neighboring forest school, on its left side.

At the nearby right turn, leave the asphalt and turn left following the K↺ mark. After a short ascent, the forest opens again, and between two signs serving pine cultivation, on the site of the former Cservárpuszta, we cover the last 1.5 kilometers on a flat ridge. When the straight road bends, the mark turns right onto a path and descends the slope in a picturesque oak-beech forest. Railings and steps help overcome the elevation difference, while we have a view into the courtyard of the Mining Museum, next to which the tour ends.