*A tour of Rabštejn nad Střelou and the granite boulder fields of Horní Střela nature park: 15 km*

• Rabštejn nad Střelou is a picturesque historical town located on a meander of the Střela river, 30 km north of Plzeň. The town was founded in the 14th century and its Gothic castle later converted into a Baroque aristocratic residence (open for tours in the summer season). In the 17th century, a Servite monastery was founded in the castle area.
• Today, the town is an intriguing mix of different architectural styles – Baroque, Gothic ruins and folk architecture. Rabštejn also has an early 14th century stone bridge, which is often used by filmmakers. It is possibly the second oldest in the country (after the 13th century bridge in Písek) .
• Rabštejn is in the center of the Horní Střela nature park, a mostly forested area (usually spruce and pine) split by the deep canyon of the meandering Střela river. The northern area of the park is littered with picturesque granite boulder fields – some of the boulders are extraordinarily massive. The most interesting collection is within the Viklan ‘rock town’.
• An excellent varied and pretty medium length circular route can be created in the area around Rabštejn, firstly touring the the town and river valley, before climbing to the higher forest areas to visit the amazing Viklan rocks. The suggested route is 14.6 km long, but this can be extended to visit other rock formations near Viklan if desired. There is 320m of height to ascend/descend on the route.
• For refreshments, Rabštejn has a pub and two good cafés (open seasonally) which are next door to each other, near the chateau. The one also serving as an information office also serves nice ice cream.

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

• Rabštejn is on a local bus route between Kralovice and  Manětín. For drivers there are a couple of small parking areas in town
• Starting at the Rabštejn nad Střelou – bus stop, take the GREEN trail in the direction of Hraběcí kříž – vyhlídka
• After 1.4 km at the Horův mlýn junction turn left off the GREEN trail, joining the nature trail (green-white diagonal stripes) in the direction of Hraběcí kříž – vyhlídka
• After 1 km reach the viewpoint
• Return back to the tourist shelter near the viewpoint, turning left onto the wide forest track
• Follow the track for 900m to join the BLUE hiking trail. Continue along the BLUE trail for 1.9 km until reach the village of Nový Dvůr
• Turn right onto the main road anmd follow the BLUE trail for a further 300m to reach the U Nového Dvora trail junction
• At the junction, turn left onto the YELLOW trail and continue into the forest for 900m until reaching a crossroads
• At the crossroads, the YELLOW trail bends to the left. Leave the YELLOW trail continuing straight on following the unmarked footpath which leads directlz into the Viklan rocks
• At the rocks, rejoin the YELLOW trail (note if wanting to visit the other well known large boulders named Bába and Dědek, turn right and follow the YELLOW trail for 1.2 km to visit these massive boulders, then return to Viklan)
• From Viklan follow the YELLOW trail for 1.4 km to reach the trail junction Uhlířská louka. Here, turn onto the RED trail in the direction of Rabštejn
• Follow the RED trail for 5.3 km all the way back to the edge of town, crossing the river using the medieval stone bridge
• Continue up the main road on the RED trail for 800m to get back to the bus stop-parking area , passing on the left the cafés , chateau and monastery area (climb the steps up the church to access the area around the monastery and Gothic castle ruins)