Walk in the land of dolines

Itinerary

• From Bánkút we follow the Z trail marker up to the edge of the Nagy-mező.
• On the Nagy-mező we follow the paved road, where we turn right at the shelter.
• On the pavement we follow the Z trail again, but only up to the information board standing at the right turn on Nagy-mező.
• At the board we continue straight on the K/ trail, which we follow until the next paved road (use GPS here as the path is hard to follow).
• Follow the unmarked paved road to the right until the Mély-sár-völgy fork.
• At the Mély-sár-völgy fork turn right on the K trail, which we follow until the forest section after the Faktor meadow.
• At the first fork after the Faktor meadow turn left onto an unmarked forestry road.
• Join the S trail, which we follow to the power line after the Csurgó houses.
• Just before the power line, turn left onto the unmarked bike track uphill towards the radio tower, follow it to the top of the meadow!
• At the top of the meadow, take the path leading left between the trees then uphill to reach the Petőfi lookout.
• From the lookout the Z trail leads back to Bánkút.

Detailed tour description

Tourist center on the Bükki Ridge

Bánkút is the hiking center of the Bükk Plateau, thanks to its road access and accommodation and dining options. This small tourist center was established here at the 'meeting point' of the two plateaus, thanks to a rare, abundant spring on the plateau. The Bánkút Tourist House, built beside it in 1930, now bears the name Fehér Sas Pension. It had a turbulent history: the popular establishment was nationalized after World War II and gradually fell into disrepair. By the late 1980s it closed, and its ruins were bought in 1997 when the pension opened. The current tourist house at the foot of the ski slopes was originally built as a ski lodge in 1979 and operated as a hostel for a while from the following year.

We start on the Z trail on the path next to the pension fence, initially passing through young beech forest, then older beech forest. To the left, a depression houses the Diabáz Cave named after a misidentified porphyrite rock; it is notable as the 7th deepest cave in Hungary with a depth of 153 m.

At a clearing the National Blue Trail turns away, while we stay on the Z trail walking in a middle-aged beech forest, parallel to a closed plateau asphalt road, descending gently. After a right turn a paved road joins from the left; as the trail disappears under vegetation here, continue in the same direction on the unmarked pavement. Soon we emerge from the trees onto the huge Nagy-mező meadow divided into several parts by groves. Here at the northern corner, left of the road stands the summer stable of the Lipizzaner stud farm, which no longer houses horses in the 2020s. The first Lipizzaners bred at Csipkéskút were brought to Bükk in the late 1940s, as the natural conditions here best preserve the breed's character within the country. Part of the stud grazed freely here in summer for a long time.

The green heart of the Bükk

It is worth regaining the Z trail and continuing again on the “letting go” asphalt road, entering the middle of Nagy-mező, where a shelter equipped with benches stands; nearby one can rest in the shade of an old tree. Nagy-mező is a vast green basin under surrounding ridges, its surface irregular with karst sinkholes and dolines. The current layers of the Bükk Plateau were once covered by volcanic rocks and tuff, cut by streams: where they reached the limestone layer it was penetrated and karstified. However, the resulting sinkholes only operated until the water carved farther along the tuff surface, opening a new sinkhole in the limestone. The blocked, inactive sinkholes remain as dolines, which act as cold traps protected by their depth with lush and greener vegetation indicating moisture accumulation. The dolines deepen mainly on the south and east sides of Nagy-mező, and in the side of one of them, between juniper bushes and pines, stands a mountain hut.

A fence was erected on the southern edge of the strictly protected meadow to protect valuable flora elements (originally a few northern dragonwort plants) from horses and other animals — more than 70 protected plant species live here. The southern-facing dolines shelter steppe meadow species characteristic of the southern part of the mountain range, while alpine species hide on the northern sides. One of the most cherished plants, the emblem of the national park, the stemless lady’s slipper, will likely be seen on the trail crossing the meadow’s southwestern part. The meadow was shaped by logging and the dominant grazing and mowing over centuries, as an important plateau livestock route led here. In the mountains, cattle, horses, pigs, and sheep roamed freely, massively browsing the young trees. The size of the clearings is illustrated by the fact that by 1911 Létrás, Jávorkút, and today’s Nagy-mező merged into a single huge meadow.

Following the road, at a right bend in an S curve, we must turn off the asphalt straight ahead — the information board marks the spot. The K/ marked hiking trail is rarely marked due to a lack of trees and thus hard to follow; it is worth relying on GPS and the Nature Walker app. This corner of Nagy-mező with surrounding pine patches, juniper dolines, and limestone outcrops recalls the Pădis Plateau in Transylvania. The path ends among the trees, and passing through a narrow beech strip, we reach the asphalt road again, where we turn right leaving the trail.

Among karst dolines

In the dense dark forest, along a clearing exploration path, we pass an old guardhouse with a veranda, then after a spruce forest join the National Blue Trail. On the K trail we continue to the karst doline of Mély-Sár-völgy. These shallow depressions were formed by merging dolines and shape valleys on the plateau surface. We leave the gravel road a few meters ahead and walk in a juniper grove along the sides of the elongated dolines of Mély-Sár-völgy. Forest sections alternate with wider doline meadows, the path undulates gently before reaching Faktor meadow. The K trail turns right at the pasture corner; looking right under the trees you can see a bench and a wayside shrine. Workers once prayed at the Madonna of Faktor meadow.

From here, from the left arrived and continued to the right from 1948, was a narrow gauge railway that transported wood from Bükk forests near the Olasz gate to a cable car. It was not significant for long: in 1953, with the construction of the plateau road, it was sidelined and dismantled in the 1960s. We follow the K trail again in beech forest, and shortly after the meadow (but just before the next one), we turn left onto a clearly visible, wide but unmarked forestry road. This leads out to Csurgó meadow, where the owner, Count Alfonz Pallavicini, built a hunting lodge around 1930. The porch building is now a mountain hut, and nearby stands another mountain hut (former caving house). Until World War I, the surrounding villagers rented the plateau pastures from the count, and their herd of more than 500 grazed in the mountains from March to November. Because of a spring on Csurgó meadow, it was a resting place for the animals.

A view of the Carpathians

We descend on the S trail to the houses, which we leave shortly after the second building before the power line, to climb the unmarked bike track leading left and uphill to the lookout. Stay on this path towards the radio antenna, and at the meadow corner turn left on the path leading between trees. With this short steep climb, reach the Petőfi lookout standing on the 956 m high peak of Bálvány. It has been here since 1948, built for the 99th anniversary of the freedom fight, its material comes from the tower of the Diósgyőr ironworks. After overcoming narrow stairs and a ladder that is a serious challenge for those prone to vertigo, a panorama level awaits.

From the upper covered terrace of the lookout opens one of the best panoramas in the country: to the north an extensive hilly and mountainous area, with the Carpathian ranges visible in the distance; to the south stretches the plateau. The view extends from the Visegrád Mountains through the Tokaj (Zemplén) Mountains to the Great Fatra and High Tatras. It is worth climbing the tower at sunset to see the memorable sight of the sun dipping behind the Carpathian Mountains. On the descent, follow only the tapering Z trail, which leads back on a small ridge that narrows and becomes rocky at the end, to Bánkút. After the tour, both the tourist house and the pension offer a wide and pleasant selection of food and drink.