Discover Birresborn: Caves and Hiking Trails

Birresborn brings together two distinctive themes: former basalt millstone caves and hiking trails ranging from forest nature stations to a circuit through hilly woodland and meadows. You can tailor your stay to your interests, whether you’re curious about past uses, forest habitats, or a longer hike with several named stops.

Ice Caves and Forest Nature Trail

The Birresborn Ice Caves were once basalt millstone quarries and were later used as natural cold-storage rooms. In winter, they serve as a refuge for bats, so they are only open to visitors from April to October. Plan your visit within this period and check the seasonal access rules before you travel.

The three-kilometre forest nature trail is a circular route with almost 20 stations offering information about forest habitats. It also passes a former quarry that nature has reclaimed. The starting point is the car park at the barbecue hut above Im Steinreich. The stations make the circuit a good choice for anyone who wants to take a closer look at the forest and its habitats while hiking.

Three Hiking Trails, Different Distances

The approximately five-kilometre Birresborn Ice Caves Geo-Circular Tour starts in the town centre and passes through hilly woodland and meadows. Its distance and the landscape described set it apart from the forest nature trail. If you’re planning a longer hike, the moderate Bertrada Tour offers a 13.3-kilometre circuit: it connects Birresborn with the ice and millstone caves, Adam and Eve, and Bertrada Castle in Mürlenbach, before returning to Birresborn. These distances offer a clear guide when choosing a route; the Bertrada Tour is also rated as moderate.

The Vulkaneifel in a Wider Context

The Vulkaneifel is also a destination in its own right. So far, 77 maars have been identified in the region, along with 350 volcanic centres, around 270 of them from the more recent period. The Ulmen Maar marks the most recent volcanic eruption in the Vulkaneifel, which took place around 10,900 years ago. These figures give you an impression of the Vulkaneifel’s long geological history.

For longer hiking plans, the Vulkaneifel Trails offer marked and signposted half-day hikes, full-day hikes, and multi-day hikes. One specific example is the 26.2-kilometre Vulcano Trail, a circular route east of Schalkenmehren. As a cultural addition, the Eifel Volcano Museum in Daun features three-dimensional landscape models of cinder cones, maars, and mineral springs, as well as exhibits on West Eifel volcanism. This gives you the option to weigh hiking routes against a closer look at the region’s volcanic geological history when choosing your destinations. The Trailpark Vulkaneifel has a mountain-bike trail network approximately 750 kilometres long, with more than 17,500 metres of elevation gain.

Discover more destinations: Gees, Duppach, Mürlenbach, Rockeskyll, Neroth, Pelm, Densborn, Hinterhausen.

For the wider travel overview: Gerolstein.