Macocha sinkhole and the Punkva valley: 5 km to 9 km circular tours from Skalní Mlýn

• This is one of the classic circular walks in the limestone and forest landscape of Moravský kras. The route traverses the most interesting section of the Punkva river valley, passing the world famous Punkva caves and then climbs to the ridge to visit the viewpoints looking down into the Macocha sinkhole – the deepest in Central Europe.
• There are various walk lengths possible with starting points either at the Macocha car park or one of the car parks in Skalní mlýn. Skalní Mlýn is accessible by bus from the town of Blansko and is the recommended starting point.
• The route shown on the map is 9 km long with 280m of ascent-descent. The path along the Punkva valley is asphalt, but the approach to Macocha is on a forest track, which has steeper sections and is not suitable for strollers. The recommended route can be shortened to 5 km by using the cable car to ascend to Macocha, but this misses out on an interesting section of the Punkva valley. If walking with a stroller it will be necessary to return to Skalní Mlýn by taking the cable car back down from Macocha, and returning along the outbound route. (Note – there is a tourist train that runs along the valley from Skalní Mlýn to the caves entrance)
• At the conclusion of the walk (or start) take a moment to visit the House of Nature, next to the Skalní Mlýn parking areas. This houses an excellent exhibition covering the story of the Moravian limestone landscape. Refreshments are available at Macocha, Skalní mlýn, and in the café at the museum. This walk can be extended by up to 7km by adding a walk along the Suchý Žleb canyon. This walk also starts in Skalní Mlýn and is described here.

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 Skalní Mlýn car parks, take the BLUE hiking trail along the Punkva valley in the direction of Punkevní jeskyně
• After 1.6 km reach the entrance to the Punkva caves and a further 200m along the road is the cable car
• Unless taking the cable car up to Macocha, continue along the Punkva valley still following the BLUE trail for 500m to reach the Pod Salmovkou trail junction
• At the junction, take the RED trail signposted towards Macocha. Do not take the rising footpath, but instead stazyon the asphalt road that continues along the valley
• After 2.1 km reach the Pustý žleb trail junction and here turn right off the valley road onto the GREEN trail in the direction of Nad Pustým žlebem
• After 400m of gentle climbing reach the ridge line and the trail junction Nad Pustým žlebem. Here, turn right onto the YELLOW trail
• After 750 m reach the Koňský spád viewpoint and in a further 750m the steps leading to the Macocha viewpoints (the lower and the upper viewpoints are both worth visiting)
• From the Macocha tourist hut, take the YELLOW trail and follow this through the forest and descend back down to Skalní mlýn, which is reached after 2.5 km