Piliscsaba – Hűvösvölgy (OKT-13)

Itinerary

During the route, we must follow the K sign all the way.

• From Piliscsaba railway station, after leaving the settlement, we climb up through the Bükkös-ditch to the Dog Hill saddle.
• From here, we head east to climb up to the Great Coal peak.
• Next to the Great Coal tourist house memorial wall, we set off to the Greasy Hill, where we find the stamp of the Mouflon Drinking Trough.
• From the edge of Nagykovácsi, we walk down to the Hermit Gorge.
• After leaving the gorge, passing by the Mariaremete sanctuary church, we cross Mariaremete.
• We descend through streets to the Great Meadow, from where we arrive at the Children's Railway Hűvösvölgy terminus.

Detailed information on the route

Piliscsaba - Great Coal

In Piliscsaba, after stamping, we walk between the gardens of the settlement, crossing the busy main road. The KL sign starts from the western gate of the cemetery, leading to the grave of József Horváth, the first completer of the National Blue Trail. After leaving Piliscsaba, we basically enter the territory of the Buda Hills: the area where the Blue Trail has a more urbanized character.

A short detour from Piliscsaba on the K▲ sign leads to two striking rock formations, the Mushroom Rock and the Devil's Altar, which can add variety to the route. On the forest corridor of the Bükkös-kúti ditch, we only slightly ascend, but at the end, when entering the Bükkös-ditch, we face a steeper climb. With a big Z-turn, we reach the saddle between Dog Hill and Great Coal. We tread on a beautiful meadow chain decorated with pines up to the side of Great Coal. The blunt peak is framed by steep slopes and narrow valleys – however, at the last, strenuous meters, an impressive panorama compensates for our efforts.

From the 550-meter-high mountain, there is a fantastic panoramic view of the entire Pilis, behind it the Visegrád Hills, and also the peaks of the Buda Hills. Around us, extensive forest areas cover the slopes, with Budapest sprawling at their base. The exceptional atmosphere of the peak is due to its grassy and feather grass summit and the pine forests rustling on the sides.

Great Coal - Greasy Hill

Descending along the side of a small valley, our next stop is the memorial wall at the site of the Great Coal tourist house. The construction of the tourist house began by handwork in the 1920s, completing in 1926. Like most houses which fell into the ownership of the Tourist Houses Managing Company after World War II, it became ruined and ceased operation after the company's liquidation. The remainder of the building, which had excellent conditions in a great location, was demolished in 1979.

Our mountain trail leads through the Szénás area, designated as a European Diploma site. The priority for nature protection here is due to numerous endemic and relic species – among them the outstanding pilisi flax, which only lives in this area worldwide. Looking around, we can observe a variety of habitats making this special area: dolomite scree grasslands (for example, in Great Coal), planted pine forests, and dense deciduous woods. The unusually rugged and dynamic surface of the mountain group is enriched by numerous rock formations.

Soon we arrive at the edge of Nagykovácsi reaching the ridge, walking for a while between houses and forest. We cross a forest corridor where rows of gray steel structures stand: these are the supports of the former ore slide. On the slides, sand was transported from Pilisszentiván to fill the abandoned cavities of the Nagykovácsi hay pit.

After a barrier, the asphalt ends beneath us, and within a few minutes, we reach the clearing of the former tourist house on Greasy Hill. From the end of the 1920s to the 1980s, the "Péntekiek" shelter was here. A group of the Hungarian Tourist Association called Péntekiek Asztala built the house on the then treeless, cleared hill. Almost nothing remains of it today, but it is worth taking a detour on the K▲ sign to one of Greasy Hill's ridges, the rocky hill offering splendid views.

The National Blue Trail route crosses the meadow. Entering the forest, the building of the Mouflon Drinking Trough shortly appears, where we can get our stamp from the sign mounted on its fence.

Greasy Hill - Hűvösvölgy, Children's Railway

We continue on the forest path towards Hermit Hill. We pass through the Kerek Hill and Hermit Hill plateau, from the Kovácsi forest field clearing we see the northern edge of Budapest and the Megyeri Bridge below.

The vegetation gradually changes to karst scrub forest by the time we reach the edge of the plateau. At one point, there is a beautiful view of the surrounding Buda hills and mountain basins – János Hill also appears in the background, with the valley winding deeply below us. We descend on a steep, rocky, and scree-covered path winding among crooked trees along the edge of the gorge. One of the wildest valleys of the Buda Hills awaits us: in rainy periods, a creek running on the surface carved the limestone of the Hermit Gorge. As the water dissolves the limestone, it creates cavities and caves. The water has cut deeper and deeper, so the gorge's more than 20 cave openings are situated at various heights. From the tourist path, we see the dark and eerie Hermit Cave with its huge cavity – revealing numerous archaeological finds inside. The Devil's Ditch creek eventually flows into the Danube but must travel its last section beneath the city.

Soon we descend to a boulder placed on the road closing the valley to cars, reaching the area among houses. Turning left onto Devil's Ditch Street, we climb the slope, then turn left again on Kerékhegy Street, then right onto Hímes Street. We are in Buda's peaceful, leafy residential area. We pass by the Mariaremete sanctuary church, which essentially came to life because of an image considered miraculous: German settlers arrived in the 18th century, one of whom hung a picture of the Maria shrine statue on a tree branch. Since many people came to the image to pray, the local landlord first built a chapel that was replaced in 1899 by the currently visible Church of Our Lady of Sorrows.

We descend to the Greasy Hill road, continue along it, and, from Aunt Náncsi's inn, walk out to the spacious, forest-surrounded Great Meadow. From here, crossing the broad ridge of Fazekas Hill, we reach the terminus of the Széchenyi Hill Children's Railway in Hűvösvölgy. Here, we can get stamped in the waiting room of the Children's Railway or with the stamp placed on the platform.