*A walk around the Söos nature reserve, with an extension to Vildštejn Castle: 2 km to 11 km*
- Söos is a small but fascinating national nature reserve, located 6 km from Františkovy Lázně in western Bohemia. A short (1.5 km) nature trail traverses a unique peat and mineral bog, well known for its bubbling ‘mud volcanos’ (mofettes). There are more than 200 mineral springs in the reserve, many with high levels of carbon dioxide – creating the bubbling pools. The rich mineral deposits and peat were extracted well into the 20th century, creating this unique partly natural, partly man-made landscape. The nature trail is partly on wooden planking (needed for crossing the bog areas) and there are interesting multilingual information boards along the route. The entrance fee to the reserve is well worth it.
- A nice option to create a longer walk is to continue from the nature reserve along the main hiking trail for 5 km to the village of Skalná to view Vildštejn Castle. This is one of the oldest fully preserved Romanesque fortresses in the country and dates from the end of the 12th century. The castle is in private hands and has gradually been reconstructed from a ruined state over a period of 20+ years. Tours of the castle, which has different exhibition rooms, are available year-round. There is an atmospheric medieval style restaurant in the ground floor Gothic rooms.
- Both the Söos nature trail and the extension to Vildštejn Castle can easily be managed with a stroller – the whole route is essentially flat. For refreshments, in addition to the castle restaurant there is a snack bar next to the small museum at the nature reserve.
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
- The Söos nature reserve is located next to the Nový Drahov regional train station (which has connections with Cheb). There is a parking area directly next to the entrance to the reserve
- Enter the nature reserve (ticket required) and follow the trail until reaching the road that leads to Skalná (after 1 km)
- If planning to visit Vildštejn Castle, turn right along the road and follow the RED trail for 4.5 km to reach Skalná town, where Vildštejn Castle is located
- Return back the same route and continue all the way back to the car park/train station following the RED trail
