Veselý vrch viewing tower and the Zlaté Psí hory mining nature trail: 9 km

• A series of low hills around 40 km to the south of Prague were, from at least medieval times onwards, one of the richest sources of gold in Central Europe. There are several nature trails in the area dedicated to the mining history and geology. A couple start close to picturesque Nový Knín, one of only four royal gold mining towns established in the Middle Ages.
• A few kilometers south of Nový Knín, another trail – called the Zlaté Psí hory trail (‘Golden Dog mountains’) – is worth considering. The trail circles around Veselý vrch hill (489m) where there is a 42m telecoms tower, which can be ascended on a spiral metal staircase to a viewing platform. From the platform there is an outstanding view of the surrounding landscape, including a picturesque section of the Slapy reservoir (which was created by damming the Vltava river in the 1950’s).
• At one point the nature trail descends from the hills to reach the cliffs above the reservoir, where there is another excellent viewpoint (this one does not require ascending loads of metal steps!). The nature trail has a number of information boards (which are quite technical and only in Czech) but the attractive mixed forest is worth exploring even without the trail.
• Although there is a parking area just below Veselý vrch (in the village of Mokrsko) the suggested starting point for this walk is actually in the next village, Prostřední Lhota, where there is a large Baroque granary, which was constructed by the Order of Knights of the Cross with the Red Star in the 18th century. The granary is now a branch of the Příbram mining museum and is home to an exhibition of historic farm implements (on the top floor there is a small exhibition devoted to gold mining and the Celts who constructed an oppidum nearby at Hrazany).
• The overall route, if starting in Prostřední Lhota, is 9.3 km with 280m of height to ascend-descend. The trail is not difficult and is mostly on good forest tracks, with occasional steeper sections, which can be a bit slippery in wet weather. For refreshments, there is a restaurant in Prostřední Lhota and on Veselý vrch the caretaker of the viewing tower often sells snacks from his hut (and tickets for ascending the tower).

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

• Prostřední Lhota can be reached by bus from Smíchov in Prague. There is a free parking area opposite the granary museum
• Starting at the museum take the BLUE trail in the direction of the Pod Veselým vrchem junction, which is reached in 1.1 km
• The nature trail starts at the junction and is marked with green-white diagonal stripes, with a large Z superimposed on the normal nature trail marks
• The trail can be taken either clockwise or anticlockwise – the suggested route below goes clockwise, which results in the final section being the ascent of Veselý vch 9but the route can be one in reverse
• Take care to visit the viewpoint over Slapy (map point 4)
• Note that the final ascent of Veselý vrch follows the YELLOW hiking markers rather than the nature trail