From lookout to lookout on the red sandstone

 Itinerary

• From the train station, we head north on the K▲ trail to the Óvári Lookout Tower.
• We continue west on the S▲ trail across the Felső Hill to the Csere Hill Lookout.
• From the lookout (initially alongside the K trail), we follow the S+ trail to the end of our route, passing by Köcsi Lake.

Detailed description of the route

We get acquainted with the red sandstone and the symbol of Balatonalmádi

The first written mention of Almádi is from 1082, and Vörösberény from 1109. The latter has been part of the settlement since 1971, but their relationship was reversed for centuries. Towards the end of the 19th century, mainly Veszprém merchants and tradesmen’s vineyards grew here. Then in 1877, the bath was built, and quoting Béla Dornyay's 1934 lines, it became "one of B.'s most beautiful, most modern, and fastest-growing bath and resort areas." Besides tourism, another important source of income for the village was red sandstone mining.

From the train station, passing through Szent István Park and following the K▲ trail, we cross the Red Sandstone Nature Trail touching Kilátóhegy, then Lomb Street where the former center of Almádi's red sandstone mining was located. The importance of this rock is explained at the Köcsi Lake geological profile. After a short city walk, we reach the Óvári Lookout Tower, a symbol of Balatonalmádi. This popular excursion spot was named after Dr. Ferenc Óvári, a lawyer and parliamentary representative, who, among many roles, as the executive vice-president of the Balaton Association, organized holiday and villa settlements on the vineyards devastated by the phylloxera outbreak in Almádi in 1884, also helping notably with the construction of the northern shore railway network.

The lookout tower, built at the very beginning of the 1900s on a red sandstone base, originally had a red pine wooden roof and parapet. After World War II, the entire tower had to be rebuilt and was then named the "Wesselényi Lookout." The repeatedly renovated tower offers a beautiful panorama of the Fűzfő Bay and the elevated high bank above it (from which Papvásár Hill and the Jákó Hill of Berhida slightly stand out), then the Sió Valley and the hills of Outer Somogy rising over the southern shore. To the west rise the Castle Hill, Red Hill, and Csere Hill. Finally, the panorama closes with the Megye Hill above Vörösberény and the village's oldest building, the fortified Reformed church, together with the Saint Ignác Catholic church and Jesuit monastery.

From a neglected tower to a splendid view

From the lookout, we continue west along the S▲ trail. We circle the telecommunications tower, then turn right at the end of Mátyás Király Road, passing a clear-cut area and start a slow ascent. After a short steep section, we reach the flat top of Felső Hill, greeted by a geodetic surveying tower.

In the 1970s and 80s, 111 such reinforced concrete measuring towers were built in Hungary for surveying purposes, mainly above the first-order points of the horizontal control network of that time. These long-sided, polygonal towers used for orientation and remotely targetable belong to the Hungarian state. With the spread of satellite technology, they lost their function, and most of them are in poor condition. Some have been plundered by scrap metal collectors, others operate in new roles as transmitter towers or observation stations, and a few are used as lookouts. The 16-meter-high Felső Hill tower, built in 1974 and like all the others, climbing it is prohibited and life-threatening despite the panoramic circle view it overlooks, including the Csere Hill Lookout.

Continuing on our trail, after a short descent, we reach the upper houses of Öreg Hill. At the end of the loess path along Oportó Street, turning left near Felsőörs, Szőlőhegy stop, we turn right on the asphalt road and cross Kilátó Street; for a short time, we continue our walk among holiday homes. Leaving the buildings behind, on a wide gravel road we arrive at the Renaissance-style Csere Hill Lookout, originally named after Miklós Horthy, renamed the Freedom Lookout in the 1950s. This building, designed by architect Jenő Padányi-Gulyás in 1935, was the first stone lookout of the Balaton Upland. Due to deteriorating condition, it was closed in 1998 and became accessible again only after renovation in 2001. Then, a 6.5-meter-high red pine tower was built on its top, rising above the canopy level of the surrounding oak trees.

Benches, fire pits, and a small pavilion were created around the building. At the corners of the tower, you can see the coats of arms of the counties surrounding Lake Balaton (Veszprém, Fejér, Somogy, Zala). From its top, one can admire a full circle panorama. The defining feature of the view is the eastern basin of Lake Balaton. Below lies Balatonalmádi; above the Aliga shores, on clear days, Székesfehérvár and even the Vértes Mountains appear. To the south and southwest, one can see almost the entire southern shore of Balaton and the undulating hills of Outer Somogy. On the northern shore, the view extends to Dörgicse, behind which Badacsony sometimes appears. The landscape's distinctive elements include the Tihany Peninsula, the neighboring Somlyó Hill with its lookout built in 2015, and the mosaic of about 25 settlements with vineyards, forests, grasslands, and few farmlands visible from here. Looking north, the Bakony mountain ranges line up: Kab Hill, Hajag, Papod, Old Runner, and finally the easily recognizable Felső Hill with its geodetic measuring tower close the panorama north of Balatonalmádi.

Köcsi Lake and a bit of geology

From the lookout, we continue on the S+ signs starting together with the K trail. On the narrow descending path mainly among sessile oaks, watch your step because although the path is not too steep, one can trip over exposed sandstone rocks and conglomerates. When the terrain flattens slightly, we continue right on the S+ trail. Crossing the narrow asphalt road, we soon pass near the colorful wooden houses of the youth camp, then past holiday homes left over from socialism, reaching the starting board of the Köcsi Lake nature trail. We walk among low woolly oaks on rocky ground, but do not be fooled by their size! Though the species seldom exceeds 15 m in height, the nutrient-poor environment here does not allow them to grow larger.

On the path, we reach a disused small quarry that reveals the lower section of the Balaton Upland Sandstone Formation. This rock appears in two belts around Lake Balaton: a 3 km wide band between Balatonfűzfő and Aszófő, and a roughly 5 km wide area from Zánka to Badacsonytördemic. Its thickness around the lake can reach up to 800 m depending on the ancient environment, but here it is only about 10 m, indicating this area was a small elevation around 250 million years ago. Based on the sediment’s cross-bedding direction, it was aligned west-east, near a streambed leading towards an ancient river valley. The river transported its sediment to a shallow sea covering the northeastern parts of the Transdanubian Hills. Thanks to the then semi-arid climate, the deposited sediments are red and purple-red in color due to the hematite and limonite iron oxide minerals coating and filling sand grains.

The lowest thick layer is conglomerate, followed by cross-bedded pebbly sandstone, then after an erosion zone another conglomerate layer, capped by sandstone layers. The coarser, gravelly layers deposited in ancient channels, while finer, sandy sediments settled in floodplains and oxbow lakes. The sequence is poor in fossils, with only a few dinosaur footprints, worm tunnels, and some plant remains found by researchers. The pebbles mainly consist of phyllite, quartzite, and dacite, bound by a siliceous-kaolinitic cement. This contributes to the rock's durability, which is why our ancestors already used it 8,000-9,000 years ago to make grinding stones. The red sandstone mining flourished in the first half of the 20th century, when the stone was used for shore protection, retaining walls, bridges, tombstones, and houses.

The Köcsi Lake is located at the far end of a long pasture area, now heavily overgrown with reeds. The mining lake, formed over the former clay mine, above the clayey waterproof layer, is an important breeding site for amphibians here. In the early 20th century, its bed was deepened, and the extracted material was transported to Lake Balaton to create a beach suitable for bathing.

Following our trail, passing the former open-air cinema, then crossing the busy main road 71, we reach Káptalanfüred train station.