Forest Culinary Tour - Monastery Inn

Starting point of the nine-kilometer circular hiking trail, which leads through the romantic nature reserve Mühlbachtal in the Arnsberg Forest, is the Rumbeck Monastery. Over the course of over 700 years, the sisters of the Premonstratensian Order created an infrastructure that allowed them to live with and from nature. By the 16th century at the latest, a well-functioning business operation with its own grain, oil, and sawmill had developed. The monastery forests provided not only firewood and timber but also the wood for charcoal burning and a glassworks. Some relics from this time are still recognizable today. For example, charcoal can still be found on some charcoal burner's platforms in the forest, such as at Station 17. In the terrain, traces of some of the former eleven fish ponds can still be found. These ponds once ensured the sisters' local food supply and powered the mills. To this day, the two remaining ponds are still used for fish farming.