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 starts at the parish church of St. Cosmas and Damian and leads first up the street "Zum Kreuzberg" (the church is on our right), past the kindergarten as well as a Weide with highland cattle, further slightly uphill left and right again into the forest. Soon it branches off to the right down to the upper village, goes sharp left a piece along the "Lingenauwer", crosses the " Hunaustraße" and turns left into the street "Auf der Hütte". A little further on, at a street light, a footpath begins on the left. A wooden plaque on a fanned out tree trunk informs about the origin of Bödefeld and ten more such plaques follow, giving information about the history of the village. The path tangents the children's playground at the "Walkenmühle", crosses the village stream "Palme". We leave the playground on our right and follow the "Palme" upwards past dwarfs in the dark spruce forest and a hut, over a bridge, to the water treading pool at the Nonnenstein. Here the trail turns right to an old charcoal kiln site with an information board about charcoal production. From here, turn left again and walk up the hill until you reach a firm farm track, which you follow to the left. Now please look to the right uphill, because in the deciduous forest stands the "Hollenhaus". The Hollenhaus is a rock, completely covered with yellow-greenish lichen. In it once lived the Hollen, forest women, in a cave. 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. This is how an old legend tells it. Our path continues and after a bend to the right we descend to the roof of the Hollenhaus with a very beautiful view. A footpath leads from there downhill and uphill again. After a dip we go right and left again and reach the deer enclosure and a little further 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 following forest corner you have a very nice view of Bödefeld. Shelters have been set up there to rest a bit and enjoy the view.In the forest, a footpath then goes left quite steeply in serpentines uphill to the "Valley of the Mountains", a natural monument on the Kehlenberg. Further down the mountain you cross the little stream "Rehmecke", where small water wheels (Schlapperrad) turn at the place "Waldesruh". The subsequent farm road then runs quite level and straight ahead above Bödefeld. Suddenly the path turns right and goes down a grassy slope to the left into a small wooded area, where it turns sharply right again towards the village. At the Schützenhalle turn left into the Mühlenweg and at the miniature golf course turn right. The path leads behind the school to the village park and from there back to the starting point at the parish church.