Lake circuit around Farkasgyepű

Itinerary

• From Farkasgyepű we set off eastward along the K◼ mark (towards the nearer edge of the village).
• Follow the K◼ mark all the way through Németbánya until it joins the National Blue Trail.
• On the far side of Németbánya turn right onto the K mark, which we follow until the Szénpajta clearing.
• From the Szénpajta turn right and follow the P+ mark towards the Trout Lake.
• From the Trout Lake the Z● mark shows the way to the paved road leading back to Farkasgyepű.
• The Z+ mark accompanies us back to the end point of our route.

Detailed description of the route

In the land of wolves

The hike starts right near the unique church: the massive building simultaneously carries Gothic and Romanesque features, resembling both a cathedral and a simple rural parsonage. Farkasgyepű was originally a favored hunting ground (King Matthias, for example, eagerly hunted local game here). The vast Bakony wilderness (Bakonyerdő, Bakonyer Wald) wildlife differed significantly from today; wolves lived there in large numbers (though the "reed wolf", or golden jackal, has now returned). They were kept away from human settlements by thorny ditches or hedges - the so-called gyepű (ridge), hence the name. The village's history began in the 18th century with the building of an inn, later a glassblowing workshop was established, settled by German colonists. At its center, similarly to the former inn, the Nimród restaurant "serves" passing traffic and is of course an excellent finishing point for any local hike.

We start along the main road following the K◼ mark towards the nearer edge of the village. We enter the forest along the fence of the building closing the row of houses on the left - amid the excited barking of guard dogs. Farkasgyepű is built near a hilltop nearly 400 meters high, while the neighboring Németbánya clings to the valley bottom. The hiking trail crosses young then more sparse pine forest. After a short ascent, we descend to our next station.

Deutschhütten

Németbánya was founded in the mid-18th century, and the nearby glassworks processing local wood were operated by German settlers. Excessive deforestation led to the workshop's closure within decades, which had produced two hundred thousand products annually, supported also by the glassblowers of Farkasgyepű. The loess cover scattered by glacial winds provided a meager livelihood for the farming population, many of whom left the village during the 20th-century relocations (resulting in a sparse village image). A few old, characteristic German houses are still visible here. The settlers originally built their homes without verandas and with a single door - unlike the Hungarians, whose rooms all opened to the courtyard and also had small porches in the same direction. The Germans gradually “got into” porches, with low walls between their columns and a few openings - the 1957 tourist guide calls this unique style "Bakony type" house. The natural-like location now mainly attracts vacationers, whom we first have to pass through and then turn right at the end onto the route of the National Blue Trail.

The K mark runs along the edge of the Jäger meadow in a shallow valley, then after leaving the guesthouse crosses the (partially) old narrow-gauge railway embankment transport road. On the left, a wide timber haul track accompanies, but the hiking path follows the creek bank. A spacious clearing equipped with benches, called Szénpajta, preserves the memory of the now extinct charcoal burning that once served the mountains' wooded areas. Looking at the map we can discover the place name Érclyukak, which also hints at lost industrial activities: bauxite mining began here in the 18th century, the extracted raw material being smelted in Kislőd’s iron forge mixed with manganese ore from Úrkút.

Experimental forest among hills

We leave the National Blue Trail and take the right P+ mark onto the transport road of the Iharkút (now closed) bauxite mine. After a short climb, before a curve, we turn right and enter the Farkasgyepű Experimental Forest Nature Reserve along a path. In the 1920s, internationally renowned forestry professor Gyula Roth began examining close-to-nature forest regeneration methods here, which basically avoid huge clear-cutting. Instead, small patches or individual trees are cut to allow light to reach the forest floor to start new generations of growth. Thus - like in a natural forest - trees of different ages, sizes (and species) live close together. (This doesn't apply to the entire experimental forest, as some patches have different stand structures.) The protected forest section contains many specimens over 100 years old, and continuous ecosystem monitoring also takes place. The Roth Gyula trail's informational boards help you learn about the ongoing research and, of course, the wildlife.

The Trout Lake

A charming earth road leads through the mixed mostly green carpet-like forest, finally reaching the shore of the Trout Lake in a sudden sharp bend. Behind the tall beech canopy shines the sparkling water surface, on which the leaves of the overhanging branches float peacefully. This little lake was dammed upstream at Bittva in 1973; contrary to its name, no trout live in it. Especially in autumn, the view from the opposite shore is magical, as the lush foliage colors are doubled by the motionless water mirror, as if admiring a kitschy bazaar painting on the wall of an end-of-the-world inn. Reality is much more enchanting; it’s worth going down to the shore, but be careful on the makeshift, shaky piers, whose condition is seldom reassuring! The hiking path crosses the dam; better let children approach the lake on the flatter opposite shore as here you can venture right up to the water. On the lake shore, a renewed forest furniture set is available since 2020.

Farewelling the Trout Lake, the P+ mark leads on a wide transport road. Soon, at a barely noticeable notch, the Z● mark takes a right angle ascent. We cross a low ridge, later a ditch, and climb out onto the forest road leading to Farkasgyepű. A few turns and we are already on the main road, where on the right-hand Z+ signs lead us back to the village.

The vanished narrow-gauge railway

Partially along the now busy main road, from 1928 a narrow-gauge railway transported wood and stone material for the sanatorium building in Farkasgyepű. Later, the line carried sawmill products from the village to the train station in Városlőd. In 1952, two existing Bakony narrow-gauge railways were connected, creating a network over 36 kilometers long. Although passenger traffic still ran at the beginning of the 1960s, by the end of the decade a new transport policy favoring road transport began dismantling rail capacities, and by 1976 the tracks disappeared from the Bakony landscape.