Dotzlar-Hainbach-Schwarzegrube

You start through the residential area, past an old bakehouse, the center of the village. On the hill, you are rewarded with a view back to the village and Dotzlar Castle. From the viewing platform of the premium hiking trail “Via Adrina”, you have a wide view of the castle and further to the Rothaar Mountains; on the other side, you can see the villages Arfeld and Schwarzenau, and as far as the Hüttental. The Hüttental made history around 1700 when Pietists settled there. They lived in simple, poor huts, hence the name “Hüttental”. Their members were baptized in the Eder River, which winds through the villages to the Edersee and then to the Weser. Then you reach the idyllic Café Hainbach. The farm visible below in the Mühlbach valley breeds the rare Wittgensteiner upland cattle, which you can see grazing in the meadows. Stop along the way and enjoy the views. Before going around Blosenberg, you have a view of the golf course in Sassenhausen. When circling the nature reserve “Großer Keller”, you might be lucky to spot rare animal species in the juniper heath, like the red-backed shrike. Also impressive here are the huge spruces with their thick trunks and unusual growths. Past the boundary stone that marks the border of the counties "Wittgenstein-Berleburg (WB)" and "Wittgenstein-Wittgenstein (WW)" including Hohenstein (Laasphe). Before returning to the village, you pass a memorial stone where once the princely forest warden Friedrich Kroh from Dotzlar died at the hands of poachers. In the village, you will find a small chapel from the 1300s, marking the end of the hike. Across the meadow, you return to the parking lot.