Discover Belm: Trails, geological history and the autumn fair

Belm brings together trails through the countryside, traces of geological and human history, and an autumn fair that has been held for over 100 years. These varied themes offer clear starting points for planning your trip: you can focus on outdoor activities and nature, discover archaeological remains, or plan your visit around an event date.

Trails with different focuses

The municipality of Belm has four TERRA.tracks, with a total of 30 kilometres of routes. One of them, the TERRA.track Gattberg, has ten trail stations along a 4.3-kilometre route, including the alternative route. The Black Chalk Discovery Route offers a different focus: it is a 3.5-kilometre circular trail with seven stations. These explain where and how clay and black chalk were once mined. The length, circular route and station topics make the differences between the two options clear.

The long-distance hiking trail Wittekindsweg also passes through the municipality of Belm, including Belm-Vehrte. The gentle foothills of the Wiehen Hills around Belm invite you to enjoy long hikes and cycling tours, with repeated views of the surrounding area along the way. For your planning, you can choose between named trails with specific numbers of stations and a broader landscape setting for longer tours.

Gattberg and traces of geological history

In the immediate vicinity of the destination, between Belm and Vehrte, lies the “Steinernes Meer” nature reserve on wooded Gattberg. There are numerous erratic boulders here. They were deposited towards the end of the penultimate ice age, the Saale glaciation, around 200,000 years ago. Butterstein is a granite erratic weighing around 70 tonnes, originally from Scandinavia. These geological features bring the landscape’s long history to life: Gattberg combines a wooded natural area with visible traces of the ice age. Belm is part of the TERRA.vita Nature and Geopark.

Archaeology and the autumn fair

The Sloopsteine near Haltern are the remains of a substantial burial chamber. One of the original six capstones is now missing; the supporting stones on the south side are fully preserved. The trapezoidal ground plan of the Stone Age structure is still clearly visible. The Sloopsteine are among the best-preserved prehistoric tombs. Visitors interested in early building forms will find a different way to explore the past here than at the geological stations on Gattberg.

The Belm autumn fair, held for over 100 years, is a recurring event. It takes place on the second weekend in October at Belmer Tie and, increasingly over time, on Lindenstraße, the so-called “fair mile”. Fairground operators offer rides, shooting galleries, food stalls and sweets. If you would like to plan your trip around the fair, check the exact programme for the relevant year in advance. This makes the event date a practical starting point for planning, while the trails, countryside and historic sites also appeal to visitors with other interests, regardless of the fair.

Route lengths and station topics help you compare the trails by their scope and content. The fair, in turn, offers a fixed weekend in October as a guide for timing your visit. These different focuses can help you begin your search for suitable accommodation more precisely.

More experiences in the wider Osnabrück destination

The wider Osnabrück destination also has independent day-trip destinations with different themes. At the Tuchmacher Museum Bramsche, fluffy woollen blankets are made on working machines that are over 100 years old. In Bad Iburg, the treetop walkway offers an immersive forest experience along a route of almost 600 metres. Its step-free access tower is over 30 metres high and provides panoramic views of Iburg Castle and the Teutoburg Forest. The walkway and its exhibition pavilion offer insights into the geological history of the Teutoburg Forest and are part of the UNESCO Global Geopark TERRA.vita. The wider destination thus offers both craft production and forest and geological history as distinct areas of interest alongside Belm’s attractions.

Discover more destinations: Menslage, Bad Laer, Georgsmarienhütte, Bippen, Wallenhorst, Gehrde, Bersenbrück, Atter

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