Stone Age Trail - Large Loop

The Stone Age Trail starts at the parking lot of Thayngen train station. Follow Kesslerlochstrasse to the Kesslerloch parking lot and continue to the Kesslerloch. After visiting the Kesslerloch, go back to the football fields. Here a path leads to the other side of the tracks. Then follow the path to the right and walk about 1 km along the edge of the forest to the Alte Weiher barbecue area. Past Alte Weiher, the path takes you straight to Thayngen-Weier. From there, return along the path until just before Alte Weiher. Turn left, past a meadow, into the forest. Follow the path through the forest. You will pass Untere Bsetzi and the Tüüfels Chuchi. The path continues along the forest edge, past Morgerenweiher to the Morgerenweiher barbecue area. Here turn right and follow Industristrasse to the bridge and cross it. On the other side, immediately turn right into the forest. Follow the path to Grüthalde. Keep slightly left and follow the path towards Thayngen to the front oaks. Turn back into the forest. Follow the path and cross Schaffhauserstrasse and immediately follow the field path on the other side of the street. After about 400 m, turn right and follow the path to the next intersection. Here go right and then left again over Langloch. Follow the path and cross Lohnemerstrasse and follow the field path over Churzloch. At the next intersection, keep right again. Follow the path until you leave the forest. Follow the field path to Reiatstrasse and cross it. Past Hüttelebe, the path now leads you along the Biber back to the starting point.

Details:

The Stone Age Trail passes by significant archaeological sites of Schaffhausen along three different hiking routes. Info boards give exciting and entertaining insights into prehistory.

All three routes start at Thayngen train station. In a few minutes’ walk, you reach the first stop, the Kesslerloch (1). The cave was once a camp of Late Stone Age reindeer hunters. Not only prehistory but world history was written here. Artfully decorated objects made from reindeer antlers caused international sensation at their discovery at the end of the 19th century.

From here you follow the hunter nomads of the Old Stone Age to the next stop, the small cave Vordere Eichen (2). They also once camped here. Many thousands of years later, in the Neolithic, a child was buried at this site.

The first branch now leads to the Thayngen-Weier station (3). The former marshland was inhabited by pile dwellers in the Neolithic. Part of the village is still well preserved underground and today is part of the UNESCO World Heritage "Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps".

From the marsh village, go back a bit to the second branch. This leads you to a mighty rock near Untere Bsetzi (4). This also offered protection to migrating hunters at the end of the last Ice Age. In the Neolithic, the site became a burial place.

The path continues along the Wäierhaalde. Where reindeer once roamed through the swampy valley, today cars and trains rush by. The nationally important lowland bog with the adjacent "Weierwiesen" preserves a piece of original landscape. After crossing the railway line and road, it goes back on the other side of the valley towards Thayngen. The path leads halfway up the slope through a diverse forest. In the middle lies the Grüthalde station (5). On a clearing which existed until the 20th century, Neolithic craftsmen produced beads and arrowheads in mass production.

Back at the small cave Vordere Eichen the route can end or be extended to a circular route. The two picturesque stations Langloch (7) and Kurzloch (6) impressively show how glaciers once shaped the landscape and at the same time opened windows to the even more distant geological past.