Hiking in the secluded hills of Cserehát

Itinerary:

• We set off northward from the bus stop along Rákóczi Street.
• From the center of Szendrő, we ascend to Vár Hill on the SL trail and descend on the other side along the same trail.
• On the Galvác Road and across Köves Hill, we follow the P/ trail.
• At the far base of Köves Hill, we join the Z/ trail, which we follow straight to Galvács.
• In Galvács, we walk through on the P+ trail.
• From the village boundary, we follow the P◼ trail straight ahead.
• We join the P trail, which we follow left to the far end of Meszes.
• After leaving the village end, we take the PL trail, which we follow up to the dam of the Rakaca Reservoir.
• From the reservoir dam, we wind through on the S trail back to Szendrő.
• Heading south, we return to the bus stop via the now familiar Rákóczi Street.

Detailed description of the hike:

Guard points of Szendrő in the Bódva Valley

We set off from the center of Szendrő towards the rising Vár Hill above us. From the main road of the Bódva Valley, behind the Savings Cooperative, we turn uphill on the Gacsal Road following the SL trail. At the end, we climb a steep slope planted with black pines via steps to the few remaining ruins of the Upper Castle and the lookout erected where the central tower once stood. The fortress stood on the banks of the Bódva; the Árpád-era Bebek Castle was built in the mid-14th century due to the obsolescence of the original; it frequently changed hands between Hungarian and German armies, but the Turks never managed to take it. Its fate was ultimately sealed by the Habsburg decree in the 18th century ordering the dismantling of castles, but the Kurucs blew up the walls earlier on the order of Francis II Rákóczi. Inside the irregular pentagonal outer bastion wall stood an octagonal residential tower, also protected by an inner castle wall. The location is now raised above ground level, and the southeastern edge of the hill meadow reveals the foundation of one of the winged bastions. From the lookout, one can primarily map the Bódva Valley and Szendrő.

Behind the castle, we cut through a steep path on the SL trail, arriving at the Galvác country road through farmland. From here, we walk a little over a kilometer on the asphalt along the P/ trail, then turn into the forest of Köves Hill on the right. Due to frequent tree thefts, the landscape here is constantly changing: the forest is woven with half-felled, broken, and mutilated trunks. If we cannot find the climbing trail, it is advisable to skip this section along the Galvác country road, saving both elevation and distance. 

At the Galvác border

Beyond the mutilated forests, the P/ trail winds through beautiful oak woods on the Köves Hill side near Galvács. We switch to the Z/ trail, which leads through village-edge meadows and arable lands into the neat village. From this open hillside, the broad, gentle waves of the Cserehát landscape first appear, rising higher towards the Upper Hungarian Mountains – first the Szalonna Hills, then the wooded ridges of Alsó and Felső Hills successively. In good weather, the view extends all the way to the High Tatras, and the bare peak of Kojsó-havas above Kassa is also visible.

Galvács is a sleepy little village in Cserehát with light traffic, but its stone-towered houses and the Törley Castle at the village’s edge tell tales of better days. The elegant building of the Budafok champagne maker Törley family now stands abandoned in the shade of century-old trees, though its owners used to spend leisure time within its ornate walls before the world war.

We cross Galvács on the P+ trail, then after leaving the eastern edge of the village, we ascend the hill along the P◼ trail. This is a cultivated cultural landscape; on fields surrounded by forests, waves of cereal crops alternate as far as the eye can see. At a stone cross, we reach the P trail running along the ridge, which (to the left) continues further for us.

On the ancient limestone blocks of Meszes 

After about a kilometer, the tower of the Meszes church appears beyond the hills, followed by the surrounding houses. The P trail turns into the valley of the Rakaca Stream, where a hill rises from the flat floodplain: on it stands a medieval Reformed church. It was originally built in the 13th century as an Árpád-era church but was destroyed in retribution by Turkish troops besieging Szendrő Castle in vain. The area suffered greatly from Turkish raids and taxes, leading to depopulation in the 18th century. The newly built Catholic church was later taken over by followers of the Reformation. The lords of the region, the Bebeks and Perényis, and finally the Lórándfys also converted to the Reformed faith. Below the church hill, rusty water flows from an iron artesian well, which the women of Meszes used for washing all year round.

We cross the village following the P trail, but at the northern end, we do not cross the stream with the main road; instead, we turn left onto the PL trail towards the Nagy-Somos Hill on the gravel road leading to the mine. After a short climb, we cross the edge of the mining yard where the ancient marble limestone, crystallized into calcite crystals under great pressure during the Variscan mountain formation over 300 million years ago, was quarried.

At the shores of the Rakaca Reservoir

After the mine, we cross a small oak grove to reach the holiday village on the shore of the Rakaca Reservoir, built in a shallow little valley, where we finally arrive on the lakeshore. From here, it is possible to hike to the nearby Vár Hill, whose cone-shaped top reveals circular moats. The site has not yet been excavated; it is assumed that the heavily ruined fortress may be of ancient origin.

A fishing trail winds along the hillside above the stabilized water level, which is also followed by the PL trail. The reservoir dam was built around the 1960s over three years, but due to drought, it took a year to fill with water. When built, the lake had an average depth of around 6 m, which has since greatly silted up. It was originally created to meet the increased water demand of the heavy industry and construction in Borsod. It was intended to feed water from the Bódva during drought to prevent the river’s flow rate from dropping below 1900 l/s. However, the tourism of the area benefited the most from the lake. At its peak in the 1970s, thanks to fish stocking, it was a fishing paradise, and many holiday homes were built along the shore. An interesting note is that due to the clay water-retaining sediment-filled basin, the location was decided near Martonyi and Meszes, although originally an ideal site was offered above Meszes, and several other reservoir plans were considered near Szendrő, Perkupa, Szin, Tornabarakony, and Hidvégardó – but these were never realized.

We follow the undulating shore of the lake for over a kilometer, climbing higher in the forest until we finally bypass the fenced protected area of the dam. Below the gatehouse, we switch to the S trail (to the left), which climbs up a shallow valley to the ridge of Nagy-Somos Hill.

Towards Szendrő above the Bódva Valley

After completing the forested section, we arrive at a wide valley basin, where the "remnant fields" between Meszes and Galvács lie. Mostly cultivated fields are here, but the road turns right between the meadows and a wooded strip on the ridge. From here, we hike through alternating pastures and forest patches for many kilometers, immersed in a meditative mood along the wide wagon road following gentle forms. We make a broad curve turning south along the ridge of the Rakaca marble ridge.

In the hilly area, no settlement is visible, only later in the widening Bódva Valley to the west. From the southern end of the hills with clearings, above Csehipuszta, we can already glimpse the surrounding forests, including the Rudabánya Mountains on the other side of the Bódva Valley, and the Szalonna Hills rising highest behind us, with the Hármas Hill forming a truly triple mound crowned by a transmission tower. The much more divided, steeper forested peaks evoke a mountainous atmosphere, adding some variation to the landscape.

From the last hills, the castle hill of Szendrő and the cluster of houses nestled below come into view. We descend gently back to the beginning of our hike at the bend of the Galvác country road. We stay at the base of the hill decorated with a lookout, taking the S trail to the right. We walk into Szendrő on this route, returning to our starting point by the now familiar path.