Gold Village Route Bödefeld / Bödefelder Hollenpfad

The hiking trail is well signposted with a golden G on a red background and B5.The hiking trail begins at the parish church of St. Cosmas and Damian and first leads up the road "Zum Kreuzberg" (the church is on our right), past the kindergarten and a pasture with highland cattle, further slightly uphill to the left and then right again into the forest. It soon branches off to the right down to Oberdorf, takes a sharp left along "Lingenauwer", crosses "Hunaustraße" and swings left into the road "Auf der Hütte". A little further on, at a street lamp, a footpath begins on the left. A wooden plaque on a fanned-out tree trunk provides information about the origins of Bödefeld and ten more such plaques follow, providing information about the history of the village. The path touches the children's playground at the "Walkenmühle" and crosses the village stream "Palme". We leave the playground on our right and follow the "Palme" uphill past dwarves in the dark spruce forest and a hut, over a bridge to the water treading pool at the Nonnenstein. Here the hiking trail turns right to an old charcoal burning site with an information board about charcoal production. From here, turn left again up the hill to a firm farm track, which you follow to the left. Now look uphill to the right, because the "Hollenhaus" is located in the deciduous forest. The Hollenhaus is a rock completely covered in yellow-green lichen. The Hollen, forest women, once lived in a cave in it. Village children herded goats and the Hollen played with them. As a parting gift, they gave the children stones, which turned out to be valuable gems at home. This tempted bad boys to enter the cave. But the cave collapsed and the thieves were never seen again. Or so the old legend goes. Our path continues and after a bend to the right descends to the roof of the Hollenhaus with a very beautiful view. A footpath leads downhill from there and uphill again. After a dip, we turn right and left again and reach the deer enclosure and, a little further on, the bird perch for the annual shooting festival. We leave the Vogelstange on our right and follow the path straight ahead and downhill until we reach a farm track. Here we turn left. At the next corner of the Waldeck, you have a beautiful view of Bödefeld. Shelters have been set up there so that you can rest for a while and enjoy the view.In the forest, a footpath on the left then climbs quite steeply in serpentines to the "Valley of the Mountains", a natural monument on the Kehlenberg. Further down the mountain, you cross the small stream "Rehmecke", where small water wheels (Schlapperrad) turn at the "Waldesruh" place. The subsequent farm track then runs straight ahead at ground level above Bödefeld. Suddenly, the path turns right down a grassy slope to the left into a small wooded area, where it turns sharp right again towards the village. At the Schützenhalle, turn left into Mühlenweg and then right at the miniature golf course. The path leads behind the school to the village park and from there back to the starting point at the parish church.