From castle to castle on the breezy plateau of Medves

Itinerary:

• From Eresztvény we head towards the Salgó Hotel on the concrete road (P+), then shortly turn right on the P trail and reach the Dunel along the former narrow-gauge railway track.
• After crossing the tunnel, we turn left on the S trail and climb up to the building of the former Dornyay tourist house.
• From here, the PL trail leads beside the Salgó saddle, from where we turn right on the P▲ trail and continue climbing up to Salgó Castle.
• After viewing the castle, we descend back on the P▲ trail and continue on the PL trail to the Salgó saddle.
• From the saddle, we take a small detour on the PL trail to visit Kis-Salgó, also known as the Witch's Stone.
• Descending back to the Salgó saddle, we turn right on the Z trail and soon arrive at Salgóbánya.
• We walk along the village's main street, Vár Street, following the Z trail, then the S◼ trail, and at the end of the street turn right to reach the House of Geowonders.
• From the visitor center, we follow a short stretch of an unmarked concrete road towards the Hotel Medves, then soon rejoin the Z trail.
• A short detour from the parking lot next to Hotel Medves can be made to the István mine.
• From the parking lot, the Z trail follows a pleasant old cart road into the Medves Plateau, then at the crossroads in the middle, it turns north.
• Crossing the plateau on an ancient, stone road along the old narrow-gauge railway route, we descend to Somoskő, reaching the cozy Bakancsos buffet after passing the Losonczy Anna spring.
• On the Z trail, then on the path leading to the castle, we make a detour to Somoskő Castle, which is located on the other side of the border, and we also visit the famous basalt organ pipes behind the castle (also on the Z trail).
• Returning to the Bakancsos Buffet, the P+ trail takes us on a pleasant walking path named after Petőfi back to Eresztvény.

Detailed description of the tour

We start the scenic loop stylistically at the gate of the Novohrad–Nógrád Geopark, in Eresztvény. At the visitor center, we can enrich our knowledge with many interesting details about this completely unique region of our country. The buffet is available at the end of the tour, and there is also a playground here.

The first sight of the route is the special industrial heritage of Dunel, the old stone-carrying narrow-gauge railway's preserved tunnel, which we enter by heading towards the Salgó Hotel (P+), then turning right from the concrete road on the P trail, reaching the old narrow-gauge railway track. Originally, tracks were laid between Somoskőújfalu and Salgóbánya due to coal mining, then the line was rebuilt in 1910 to transport basalt mined in the Medves Plateau mines. We should bring a flashlight with us, since this is the country's only tunnel-leading hiking trail, with 146 meters passing through darkness.

In the princely castle of Salgó

After crossing the tunnel, we turn left on the S trail and climb to the building of the former Dornyay tourist house. From here, the PL trail leads beside the Salgó saddle, from where turning right on the P▲ trail and continuing to climb, we reach the castle of Salgó (623 m) full of many curiosities. The panorama opening before us is definitely among the top views from castles in our country: here we get the best sight of Central Europe's largest basalt plateau, the Medves, the mountains around Salgótarján, the Karancs massif, and on clear days, the High Tatras ridges can also be seen. The unusual view of the Mátra from the north is also dramatic, as the endless mountain range of the northern part of the country opens before us.

The next step is geology. Somoskő and Salgó, two of Nógrád County’s most beautiful castles, were built on a volcanic vent exposed on the surface by erosion. It is truly special that, following the erosion of the surrounding softer rocks forming the volcanic crater, the lava that penetrated into the rock and remained in the vent can be seen. Also remarkable is how people built such beautiful castles on top of these natural fortifications. The most extraordinary episode in the castle’s history is likely when in 1554 Kara Hamza Szécsényi Beg took what he considered an impregnable fortress without a fight by impressively displaying numerous tree trunks imitating beds in the foggy weather.

Petőfi visited the castle on June 11, 1845; according to local legend, his horse's horseshoe mark is preserved on the rock next to the castle gate. However, it is certain that he captured the experience here memorably in his volume "Travel Sketches": "Perhaps there was no castle in Hungary so close to the stars as Salgó," where the poet lingered for a long time: "my gaze wandered miles, my soul roamed centuries beyond."

Descending back on the P▲ trail and continuing on the PL trail, it is worth making a small detour to Kis-Salgó (572 m), also known as the Witch's Stone, from which we get a wonderful panorama not only of Salgó Castle but also of Somoskő Castle, and directly beneath us, the source region of the Zagyva River unfolds. The mountain ridge between Salgó and Kis-Salgó was once a smaller valley filled with lava flows, but its surface covered by hard basalt was exposed, while erosion removed the looser volcanic breccia and previously formed marine sediments around it.

Descending back to the Salgó saddle under the castle, we switch to the Z trail, and soon the houses of Salgóbánya appear. The building of the casino, which recalls the village's once-rich mining life, now houses the Novohrad-Nógrád Geopark's visitor center called the House of Geowonders, also honoring here the memory of Ferenc Zenthe, who was born locally. We walk along the village's main street, Vár Street, following the Z trail and then the S◼ trail, and at the end of the street turning right, we spot the imposing building.

From the visitor center, following the unmarked concrete road towards Hotel Medves, we soon rejoin the Z trail, then from the parking lot next to Hotel Medves, we take a pleasant old cart road onto the Medves Plateau. Before starting this, it is worth visiting the former István mine area located within the Hotel Medves domain, where brown coal deposits under the Medves basalt were extracted before quarrying. Coal mining is already history, but the István mine still operates today: the water-rich spring at the end of the mine provides water supply to the surrounding residential areas.

On the breezy plateau of Medves

Walking on the Z trail, we cross the Medves Plateau on scenic cart roads. The experience is unique as on the horizon of the "plains," only the higher mountains of the area can be seen: Salgó, Karancs, and the summit of Medves. The latter, at 659 meters, is the highest point of the plateau, from where lava flowed out largely about 2-3 million years ago. The Medves Plateau lies at an altitude of 520-570 meters above sea level, covering an area of 12.8 square kilometers, most of which is on Hungarian territory. The volcanic cover varies in thickness between 11 and 107 meters. It is hard to imagine in this gentle landscape that once numerous mines extracted cobblestones, and the clattering of thousands of hammers was only broken by the rattling of the narrow-gauge railway. Central Europe's largest basalt plateau became the center of domestic basalt mining in the era of large railway and road constructions, with gradually decreasing extraction only completely ceasing in the mid-1980s. The cobblestones from here not only reached cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but even Paris and London.

Leaving the former Medvespuszta, we get a fantastic view of the beautiful Somoskő Castle, with the imposing Sátoros massif in the background. On an ancient, stony road along the former narrow-gauge railway, we descend to Somoskő, reaching the cozy Bakancsos buffet after passing the Losonczy Anna spring.

Somoskő Castle and the world-famous basalt organ pipes

On the Z trail and the path leading to the castle, we must take a detour to perhaps the most beautiful castle in Nógrád County, Somoskő, which is already located on the other side of the border and is visitable with a modest entrance fee. Somoskő Castle was built on a volcanic vent exposed by erosion. It is truly special that the lava intruded and remained within the vent can be seen following the erosion of the surrounding softer rocks. From the surprisingly well-preserved castle in Hungary, we enjoy beautiful views of the Medves Plateau, Salgó Castle, and to the north, the forested valley of the Sátormegi stream. Somoskő is symbolically significant historically since the settlement is in Hungary, while the castle is found in Slovakia, and it is only a recent achievement that one can also hike from the village to the impressive ruins. Somoskőújfalu and Somoskő belong to Hungary, naturally connected to the local stone quarrying following the "return" after the Treaty of Trianon. Dr. Géza Krepuska, an otologist famous in Europe at the time, owned estates here around then, and by fate, one of the important English members of the committee managing the detailed demarcation of the Czechoslovak-Hungarian border was suffering from a severe ear disease. The doctor managed to persuade his patient to visit the site with the Antant committee members to see the two predominantly Hungarian villages with their own eyes. Thus, the committee allowed the rights to the area's basalt and coal mines, including the neighboring Macskalyuki quarry, to remain with their Hungarian owners, who were able to use and develop them until the Second World War, and transport the dark gray cobblestones to Budapest duty- and tax-free.

On the other side of the castle, about five minutes from the entrance, is the famous basalt flow, well known among geologists and also featured in secondary school geography textbooks, which can be reached by the Z trail. Here we can admire the slender five- and six-sided basalt columns, sometimes reaching heights of 9 meters, cascading down the castle hill like a "basalt waterfall." Basalt is an effusive volcanic rock formed by relatively fast cooling of fluid, low-silica lava. These unique columns were formed in a 4-million-year-old volcanic crater by the slow underground cooling of lava (which caused basalt to shrink into such regular shapes). This rare geological formation owes its exposure to the quarrying of raw materials used in building the castle.

Returning to the Bakancsos buffet, the P+ trail leads on a pleasant, scenic walking path through Eresztvény, which was also named after Petőfi together with the spring located at the halfway point of the route.