From Bakonybél to Kőris Mountain

Itinerary

• We start from the bus stop heading northeast along the Main Street on the K◼ route.
• At the end of Jókai Street, we follow the Z route along Friends' Road.
• We turn left from the forestry road onto the K route.
• We leave the summit of Kőris Mountain descending through the Marble Valley on the KΩ route.
• On the S● route, with a 300 m 'mini round trip', we visit the Tekeres Well.
• We continue southwest on the Z route, which temporarily joins with the K route.
• Reaching the edge of Bakonybél, we follow the K◼ route back to the bus stop.

Detailed description of the tour

From the bus stop to the forest edge

We start from the bus stop heading northeast along the Main Street on the K◼ route, soon arriving at the Bakonybél folk house. The building complex, as one of the finest examples of Bakony folk architecture, was already on the 1857 cadastral map of the settlement. It was built by the Haspray family, one of the oldest settlers and later wood tool traders of Bakonybél, whose ancestors appeared even in the first 18th-century censuses of Bakonybél. The homestead comprises two originally smoke kitchen houses and a so-called “narrow barn”. In front of the smaller house, in 1895, a shop space was added, and the two houses were connected by an arched gate. On the courtyard side of the larger building runs a parapetted porch. Its street room, furnished as a clean room, shows the life of prosperous young married couples in the 1920s, while the back is arranged as the living room of an elderly farmer and his wife from the late 19th century. In the former stable, traditional wood tool making can be learned. The original stove and the free chimney in the smaller house’s kitchen are still intact, and in the old shop area, we can get acquainted with the story of the “Bakony Indians” created by Tamás Cseh.

Climbing up the side of Kőris Mountain

After the left turn of Main Street, the Z route turns right into Jókai Street, at the end of which we cross the road and continue along the so-called Friends' Road following the route. According to Béla Dornyay, this road, used already in the Árpád era, was built by the Bakonybél monks in 1702 to connect the local monastery along the shortest route with, according to some sources, the Pannonhalma archabbey, according to others, the monks of Porva. With an S-shaped bend, we reach the forestry road, where after 200 meters, at a well-signposted junction, we turn left onto the K route. We continue on a narrow path beside a gully that well exposes the Quaternary loess below us.

Higher up, the forest begins to thin from the left, and the first larger beeches appear. Soon we reach the gravel access road named after Árpád Lipka, the forest ranger of the Ugod Esterházy estate, active from the late 19th to early 20th century, where we turn right. Still in the bend, we turn right again with the route onto a narrower dirt road where we walk through a beautiful wind-beech forest. Finally, we return from the path to Lipka Road and cross the asphalt forestry road.

The Eleven-förtés sinkholes

Those interested in geological values should take a 700 m detour turning left onto the asphalt road toward the Eleven-förtés sinkholes, which open about 100 m to the right of the road. This interesting-sounding word denotes a seasonally water-filled, muddy place. The plateau formed by Dachstein limestone between Kőris Mountain and Parajos Hill is covered by a thin, waterproof clay layer in its small depression, while on the eastern side, quartz sand is found. Here, at the edge of the karst plateau, one of the largest glassworks groups in Bakony was established. In many small holes and periodically clogged sinkholes, water remained standing, and the excavation was already ready. From the one closest to the road, the 88 m long, 54 m deep Running Cat sinkhole cave opens.

Further to the summit

We return from the sinkholes to the K route, which, crossing the road, turns into a narrow path and, through an unremarkable beech forest, turns left back to the forest road. On it, we turn right uphill, continuing after 30 m through a ribbon railing, then on the asphalt road behind the fence of the white dome-shaped civil airspace radar station built in 1976, we reach the summit of Kőris Mountain. The three-story Vajda Péter lookout here replaced its predecessor erected in 1920, which was replaced again in 1962 and last renovated in 2002. From its top, the ancient pine forest of Fenyőfő and the village’s church tower are clearly visible; behind them, Bakonyalja and the Little Hungarian Plain. The distinctive shape of Somló and the huge white building of the Pannonhalma Abbey, which almost glows in the sunshine, appear. To the east, Borzavár, Porva, and Zirc come into view. The Tési plateau can also be clearly seen. To the south, the forest occasionally cuts into the panorama, but the antenna-studded Kab Hill is still clearly visible. On clear days, the easternmost Alpine peaks over 2000 m, the Rax and Schneeberg, are visible. About 50 m from the lookout, a protective grille disturbs the view toward the radar station towering nearby.

Descent through Marble Valley

We leave the summit on the KΩ route descending through Marble Valley. On the path leading to Kőris Mountain's Devil’s Hole, it is worth looking at our feet as sometimes we tread on rusty firestone-lentil limestone.

Before the steep slope above the cave, turning right, a small detour leads to the Marble Valley “marble” quarry, where in the late 18th century, the dense-jointed Jurassic limestone was mined for the Esterházy estate in Pápa. From this hard rock, the Baroque lions of the Pápa castle as well as many other sculptures of churches and castles built by the estate were carved.

Not far from the summit, we continue descending to a cave likely among the oldest in Bakony. In the approximately 200-million-year-old Kardosréti limestone, at the intersection of two nearly perpendicular rock fissures, a cave probably formed at the then karst water level by mixing corrosion, closed later, and was brought to its current height by the mountains rising. The now inactive cave contains stalactite formations in both its shafts, with beautiful white flowstones in the lower one. The entrance of the two-story, 64 m long, 34 m deep pothole is divided into two parts by a wedged-in rock.

Under the shaft cave, we descend further on a steep, rocky section. Be careful on the slippery path! On the later hardening path, we emerge onto the forestry road, where we turn left, then quickly veer right.

Tekeres Well and Százhalom

After about 1 km, steadily descending, we come out into a clearing from the trees. Here, from a larger beech, the atmospheric path of the S● route turns left, on which with a 300 m 'mini round trip' we visit the Tekeres Well, then continue southwest on the Z route. Slightly further down, a sign introduces the Százhalom burial mound field hiding deep in the forest. Since their builders’ ethnic affiliation and language are unknown—perhaps belonging to the Illyrian ethnic group—historical science calls them a burial mound culture based on their burial customs, whose largest cemetery in Central Europe consists of 226 mounds estimated to be around 3200 years old. Archaeologist Gábor Ilon found 10–30 cm thick charcoal remains of funeral pyres under a mound similar to one found at the Ugod soldier excavation site, beneath which the soil was reddened by the fire that once consumed the corpse. The grave goods found at a depth of 100–110 cm include pottery shards above the skeletal remains and bracelets, pins, rings, dagger and spearhead fragments made of bronze deformed by heat.

At the curve after Százhalom, a small clearing welcomes us from the right, which is one of the local wild boars’ favorite wallowing and feeding places.

Back to Bakonybél

After the meadow, we turn right following the route, then continue left through the atmospheric beech forest until we reach Lipka Road. From here, we return on the same path as at the start of the walk. At the edge of the plateau, pay attention that the Z route turns left from the wide road you are walking on! At the end of the tour, we return to the bus stop following the K◼ route.