A short walk to the Kapučín rocks from Ležky village, just off the road to Karlovy Vary: 3 km (extendable)

• About two thirds of the way from Karlovy Vary near the village of Ležky, drivers might have noticed a rock formation poking out of the trees on the right hand side. There is a short trail leading to the top of the rock area which offers a super view of the rolling farm countryside in this part of the country. It is a great spot for a picnic.
• The granite boulders and towers are really quite striking, as hopefully can be seen from the cover photo. At the summit of the hill is a plateau and clear evidence that this was once fortified. There is a massive man-made ditch protecting the exposed part of the plateau. The interior buildings were presumably wooden, as no trace of them remains. Intriguingly, the fortress site does not yet appear to have been dated – but it was probably a Medieval guard fortress keeping watch over the trade route between Prague and Loket.
• Ležky is a quiet village, with a surprisingly long recorded history – back to the 11th century. It was clearly once a prosperous estate – there is a old brewery that was abandoned in 1914, but no sign of the orginal manor house. The area had a majority German population, which were expelled after WWII. It seems not to have recovered since then.
• It is a 1.3 km walk from the centre of Ležky village to the summit of the rocks. It is possible to make a loop around the main rock area, as highlighted in the map below. There is just under 100m of height to ascend/descend. It is not a difficult path. There are no refreshment options on the route or in Ležky village.
• If wanting a longer walk than just to the rocks and back, consider following a part of the Lubenec education trail that passes through Ležky. This is marked on the trail maps (and mapy.com) but actually has no trail markers and just a few information boards (in Czech only). It is therefore best to follow the route using the mapy.com phone application, with GPS. Much of the trail is on side roads and is not that interesting, but a pretty section is the 5 km route heading northwest from Ležky to the village of Drahonice. On the way the route passes a old Jewish cemetery, dating back to the 15th century. There was a significant Jewish community in this area, up until WWII. Now the graveyard is sadly in need of attention.

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

Directions

• From the village of Ležky, follow the red triangle markers to the top of the rock formations. If desired the summit area can be done in a loop, by following the unmarked footpath as shown in the map above