A walk from Albrechtice in Šumava to the Sedlo lookout and Celtic hillfort: 3 km

• Sedlo (905m) is a flat topped mountain in the Šumava foothills, situated approximately half way between the towns of Kašperské Hory and Sušice. It is remarkable for the remains of an Iron Age hill fort, with still visible massive stone ramparts that were once as high as 10m. This was likely the highest inhabited hillfort in Bohemia – the slightly higher Giant’s Castle (some 15 km away) appears to have not been used for residential purposes and may have been a pure ritual/sacred site.
• Sedlo appears to have been constructed and occupied by successive Celtic tribes, starting around 500BC. It was likely connected with the gold prospecting activities in the Otava valley. Today, an impressive new wooden lookout tower sits on the location of the hillfort’s acropolis. The tower is worth climbing for its 360 degree panoramic views.
• A visit to Sedlo can be combined with a trip to the nearby Kašperk medieval castle (see the separate Kašperk page), but this involves quite a steep ascent-descent of the eastern-southern flank. A gentler (and shorter) approach to Sedlo is from the village of Albrechtice on the Sušice side of the mountain. There is a parking area at the end of the village directly at the beginning of the trail (buses from Sušice also go the village, but the bus stop is 800m from the start of the trail).
• The total walk from the car park to the summit and back is 3.1 km with 140m of height to ascend-descend on an easy (not steep) forest footpath. There are no refreshment options in the village, or on the route.

Note: click ‘Show on Mapy.com’  to go to a full screen version of the route directly on the mapy.com site. This can be used for on line navigation, saved or exported as a GPX file.

Directions

• Starting at the parking area in Albrechtice village, follow the RED trail for 1.4 km to reach the lookout tower
• Continue a further 200m across the summit to reach the rocky are on the eastern side, which marks the edge of the hillfort (the remains of the rampart are the piles of broken stones)