In the yew forest of Szentgál

Itinerary:

• We leave the village following the P+ sign through the valley of the Séd stream up to the foot of Miklós Pál Hill.
• We climb up the hillside on the nature trail marked PT until we reach the P sign coming from Szentgál, where we continue walking to the resting place.
• From the resting place, we take a short detour to the top of the hill to the lookout on the P▲ trail.
• From the resting place, the P and P▲ trails descend together into the valley of the Séd stream to the ruins of a former mill.
• In the valley of the Séd stream, we return to Bánd following the P+ sign.
• Before returning to the village center, we take a short detour to Esseg Castle on the PL trail.

Description:

From Bánd through the valley of the Séd stream

We start from the edge of Bánd, from beneath Várhegy, on Kossuth Street following the P+ sign. The ancestor of the village settled under the Árpád-era castle to serve it. Like most Bakony villages, it was depopulated during the Turkish occupation and only repopulated in the mid-18th century by German settlers from the surrounding villages. Located on the main passage of Bakony, the village was decimated by World War II, though the front passed through without civilian casualties, as the population hid in the dense forests of Miklós Pál Hill. However, in the years of retribution, much of the significant German population was deported and replaced by Hungarian settlers from Upper Hungary. The village is the birthplace of Ferenc Mádl, the second president of democratic Hungary.

On Kossuth Street we reach out from among the houses around the foot of Várhegy. We cross the Séd stream on the bridge leading to separate farms outside the village, and along the willow groves by the streambank, we arrive at the Miklós Pál Hill massif.

In the yew forest of Szentgál

The hill's forests are surrounded by a protective fence, within which lies one of the oldest nature reserves in Hungary, the Szentgál Yew Nature Reserve established in 1951. The protection has long been in place as the forest was guarded by a yew keeper in the early 20th century – Miklós Pál Hill and the surrounding hills host Hungary’s largest native yew forest. While the most striking feature is the centuries-old ash-grey beech canopy, the shrub layer is formed by extremely hardy and long-lived common yew populations, favoring the moist and cool climate.

Passing through the fence we begin the climb on the steep hillside along the PT sign. Over a short section, just under two kilometers, we overcome 200 meters of elevation. Fortunately, the steepness is softened by the serpentining nature trail, and we can also stop at information boards for both education and rest. The northern slope’s light is enhanced by broad beeches and the increasingly dense evergreen yew trees uphill. This forest has a unique atmosphere, where the old, gnarled, and sometimes dried trees evoke the mood of an enchanted wilderness.

About two-thirds up the hillside, where the slope starts to ease, the P trail arrives from Szentgál, guiding us from this point. The ascent clearly becomes gentler; after leaving the dense forest, we reach the resting place beyond the fence. The forest management has created a cozy, shady meadow with benches, tables, and a rain shelter hut, where we also take a short break after the exhausting climb.

On the top of Miklós Pál Hill

From the resting place, we take a short detour to the summit, which can be reached in just under fifteen minutes on the P▲ trail. The slight rise is quickly covered through the sparse beech forest until we reach the clearing at the hilltop with the lookout tower named after Dr. Antal Majer. (ATTENTION! The tower is closed from August 2025 until renovation due to safety concerns.) From the lookout we get a magnificent panorama of the surrounding oak forests of southern Bakony, the Szentgál and Veszprém basins, and northwards the forested ridges of High Bakony.

Returning to the resting place, we continue eastward on the combined P and P▲ trails, which lead increasingly steeply down the hill. At the edge of a clearing, we stop at another rest point, then beyond the clearing descend into the steep gorge of Tüses valley. We descend on the steep side through an old, contiguous oak forest. According to old maps, the surrounding woods are named the hunting grounds of King Matthias. The dolomite ridges that break steeply northward toward the Séd stream roll gently downhill, creating an ideal habitat for the development of continuous oak groves. These forests are abundant in wildlife, as evidenced by the hunting stands.

The valley of the Séd stream

The steep hillside is again characterized by the presence of old beeches. At the end of the gorge, we reach a clearing between Miklós Pál Hill and Várhegy at a bend of the Séd stream. The trail turns back here towards Bánd. We follow the stream valley uphill in the shade of the beech forest on the steep hillside. At the barely visible ruins of an old mill, on the bridge crossing the Séd, we join the P+ trail, which leads back to Bánd along the watercourse between the meadows of the valley and the beech forests of Miklós Pál Hill.

After a few hundred meters, we return to the point where we left the village to the foot of the hill; now we return to the village along the same section. However, before heading to the center, just before the bridge over the Aranyos stream, a path branches off to the right towards the top of the hill above us, accompanied by the PL sign. This short detour is worth taking, as on the hilltop with excellent views we find the ruins of the local fortress and the calvary.

Esseg Castle

The castle was built after the Tatar invasion; it was the seat of the Atyus, then the Igmánd family. It gained toll collection rights from the king and was a starting point for raids in the area. Although we know of two sieges of the castle from the 14th and 15th centuries, these relate to disputes between the families ruling the area. Its destruction is dated to the Turkish times. Although we do not know of a siege, it was probably destroyed when Veszprém fell in 1552. Later, the newly settled village used the stones of the ruins as building material for houses. The calvary, created on the hilltop, is still visible today on the village side of Várhegy.

From the summit, the PL trail leads down the eastern ditch, circles the ruins, descends from the outcrop from the south, and reaches back to Kossuth Street, where at the end of the already covered section we arrive at the starting point of the tour following the P+ signs.

The detailed description of the tour can be read under the Description menu.