Bükk cable car ride with panoramic rock ledge and waterfalls

Itinerary

• We start from the parking lot located on the Erzsébet promenade in Lillafüred, going uphill in a small street following the S sign, then turn right. We follow it all the way to the hairpin bend before the Szinva stream.
• At the Szinva stream, we leave the tourist sign and take a small, unmarked path next to the stream going right, to the lower station of the cable car.
• We take the cable car up to the ridge of Jávorkő Mountain.
• From the upper station of the cable car, we walk across the Oxygen walking trail O2 (briefly) to the Jávorkő meadow,
• At the meadow, we join the P sign and continue left to the Fehérkőlápa tourist lodge.
• At the Fehérkőlápa tourist lodge, we turn left onto the Z sign, which we follow to the next junction.
• From the junction, we walk out to the Fehér-kő on the Z▲ sign.
• From Fehér-kő, we walk back to the holey rock on the Z▲ sign.
• At the junction next to the rock, we continue the route downhill to the right on the Z+ sign.
• We join the Z sign downhill, which we follow serpentining to the Mária promenade.
• Arriving at the Mária promenade, we follow P to the Lillafüred State Forest Railway station.
• At the narrow-gauge railway station, we cross through the underpass and then continue right along the Fazola promenade to the hanging garden of the Palotaszálló Hotel.
• Through the hanging garden, passing the Great Waterfall, we descend to the Anna cave entrance.
• From the entrance of Anna cave, we go up along the edge of the hanging garden on Kosztolányi Dezső promenade on the K+ sign to the Tókert restaurant.
• From the Tókert restaurant, we walk back to the junction above the parking lot along the Z sign via the Mária promenade.
• On the Mária promenade, we turn right onto the S sign, which leads back to the parking lot.

Detailed description of the tour

Walk along the mountain side

We start the tour on the S sign from the parking lot located on the Erzsébet promenade in Lillafüred. Our goal is the lower station of the cable car, from where we will take the cable car up to the top of Jávorkő Mountain, saving 250 meters of elevation gain. Children on the tour will be happy if they joined us. At the start, we still have to climb a bit, as the S sign goes uphill in the small street, but after 200 meters, we reach the Mária promenade, which winds levelly. Continuing to follow the S sign (right), we pass two shrines and rest areas, one of which is the Limpiászi cross, reached in barely 500 meters. On the promenade, we pass through a beech forest marked with tall ashes and mountain maples, mixed with some linden, pedunculate oak, and a few planted pines here and there.

The Limpiászi cross, also called the “Field altar,” was built at the end of the 1920s, simultaneously with the Palotaszálló Hotel and the creation of the Mária promenade. It received its name from the corpus on the cross, which is a replica of a wooden corpus found in the church of the northern Spanish settlement of Limpias. The beech crucifix was damaged in 2014 by a storm when a pine fell on it, and the metal corpus was also damaged. Északerdő Zrt. remade the cross from a nearby grown oak, reinforced with a steel frame. The figure of Christ was recreated from donations by 2015. At the altar beneath, in line with an old tradition, mass is held twice a year.

After the shrine, we soon walk under the cable car, but to get on it, we have to continue on the tourist path until it winds down to the Szinva stream. We don’t need to go onto the highway, as staying on this side of the stream, a narrow path also leads to the lower station.

Floating above trees and a healing spring

After buying a ticket, all we need to do is get on the cable car and enjoy the ride over the treetops to the flat ridge of Jávorkő Mountain. The whirring of the cable drive motor suddenly ceases after leaving the lower station, and during the quarter-hour ride above and through the leaves, we can relax and enjoy the sounds of the forest. Reaching the mountain top, we get off the cable car seats and head towards Fehér-kő, promising magnificent views. From the upper station of the cable car, many tourist paths lead further, shown on a big board. We follow the Oxygen walking trail O2 sign to reach the Jávorkő meadow. Here we join the P sign and continue the tour. If we get hungry, we can eat a snack brought from home at the rest area on the meadow’s edge. Children can swing here as well.

After the meadow, we walk through a beautiful beech forest on a good, wide forestry road towards the Fehérkőlápa tourist lodge. Next to the lodge is the Saint Stephen spring and the rest area around it, where we can fill our bottles with medicinal drinking water, excellent for stomach and intestinal complaints. If we didn’t bring snacks, we can also satisfy our hunger at the tourist lodge’s restaurant, but it’s worth checking the opening hours before departure as it does not always operate on weekdays. It is definitely worth walking to the entrance of the lodge hidden in the pine forest, where dwarfs and small frog and fairy figures await visitors, especially children. The house was built in 1930 with the same function as today, but it was destroyed twice in its history: once in World War II, then in a fire in 1997. Afterward, its new (and current) owner rebuilt it.

Picturesque panoramic beauty

From the tourist lodge, we continue left on the Z sign to a three-way resting bench, passing through some depressions probably left by forestry vehicles filled with water. If the seasonal puddles don’t dry up, we might even see froglets in them during summer, so better avoid stepping on them to give a chance for the developing frogs to grow. At the resting benches, the path forks; we follow the Z▲ sign, which leads on an increasingly narrow trail on the steep mountainside. Occasionally, we have to step over roots and protruding rocks, so watch your step and proceed carefully. It is good to stop occasionally and scan the mountainside, as we might see beautiful spring primroses in bloom during the spring flowering season.

The trail leads past a rock cavity, called the “Soul spring” by natural healers, who claim that the radiation emanating from it has calming and relaxing effects. From the cavity, only 200 meters remain to the 587 m high Fehér-kő, offering a magnificent panorama of the mountains surrounding Lillafüred. The limestone cliff’s dizzying depth was formed by tectonic movements and further deepened by the Szinva stream. The smooth, tilted plates of Fehér-kő show tectonic effects, and between limestone ribs, plants and flowers characteristic of rocky grasslands can be seen despite heavy tourist traffic. Many people walk and rest on these rocks year-round, polishing the surface to mirror smoothness in many places, which unfortunately harms the plants. Fehér-kő is also a favorite training site for climbers, so be careful not to drop anything that could endanger someone climbing up.

Descent to the valley

After enjoying the panorama, walk back on the narrow path to the junction before the rock cavity and start descending the mountain on the downhill Z+ sign. The knee-challenging path soon joins the Z sign, and from there we walk downhill on a serpentine road embraced by a beautiful beech forest. The sight of the smooth gray trunks of the tall trees almost hypnotizes the hiker, but watch your step as some places are covered with polished stones and debris, where slipping is easy.

At the end of the winding road, we return to the first junction of our tour on the Mária promenade but head in the opposite direction to visit Lillafüred’s spectacular waterfalls. On the P sign, we head right on an atmospheric path along a scenic rock wall, where beautiful ferns and mosses grow in many places. Soon, we reach a tunnel carved into the rock, beside which is another shrine, the Patrona Hungariae statue niche. Like the Limpiászi cross, it was made at the end of the 1920s and is a replica. The original statue of Virgin Mary holding the Little Jesus is in the Loreto chapel of Matthias Church in Budapest. The niche is made of freshwater limestone located near the waterfalls.

In the realm of waterfalls

After passing through the tunnel and a 400-meter walk, we reach the Lillafüred parking lot, where several buffets are available. If we want to continue instead of snacking, we stay on the Szinva hillside side and follow the P sign. After a spectacular rock formation, we arrive at a waterfall surrounded by lush vegetation in summer, then cross under the old bridge of the narrow-gauge railway and shortly leave the stream on a wooden bridge. We arrive at the Lillafüred forest railway station, where again several restaurants, buffets, and a gift shop offer their products, but only a short walk from here is our country’s highest waterfall. We cross the pedestrian underpass under the railway, turn right, and leave the sign to approach the hanging garden of the Palotaszálló Hotel along the Fazola promenade.

In the hanging garden, we can admire Lillafüred’s pride, the 20 m high Szinva stream waterfall, from several levels. The roaring water quantity changes throughout the year, so we see a different face each time we return. On frosty winter days, huge icicles decorate the rock wall. We descend from terrace to terrace until reaching the base, where we can see another waterfall beside the Anna cave entrance. If time allows, visit the unique tufa cave carved by the rapid Szinva stream, surrounding vegetation, and Anna springs flowing under the Palotaszálló.

We turn back and walk up the hanging garden edge on Kosztolányi Dezső promenade on the K+ sign to the playground at the garden’s top, where children can expend remaining energy. Circling the Palotaszálló, we can admire the Hámori lake, where boat rides are possible in the summer season except on rainy days. The lake’s predecessor naturally formed from the waters of Garadna and Szinva streams, with the Szinva tufa dam impounding it. Its current form was shaped in 1810 following the idea of Frigyes Fazola, creating a sluice-controlled, long reservoir from a formerly small lake to meet the nearby ironworks’ water-energy needs.

Arriving next to the Tókert restaurant, we follow the Z sign upwards, passing through the narrow-gauge railway station and returning to the buffet area. We can replenish spent energy here or earlier at one of the buffets at the Lillafüred parking lot. We can also visit the Saint Stephen cave, two minutes’ walk away. If we have gathered enough experience for the day and want to save something for next time, we can return the known route back to the Mária promenade on the Z sign, walking up to the S sign junction. Turning right downhill there, we return to the starting point of our tour.