FrankenwaldSteigla Durchs Rehbachtal

Listening to silence - Where does the gentle buzzing of the forest bees come from? Where is the deer that made the branch crack softly? Listen to the sound of silence, enjoy the peace and quiet! Hiking in the Franconian Forest is a contrast to the sensory overload. New worlds of sound open up to the ear - and natural silence drowns out everyday life!

The mill clatters by the rushing stream, clunk, clunk...

The Kleine and Große Rehbach streams sometimes rattle louder, sometimes quieter, but most of the mills have long since stopped clattering. Our circular route takes you "Through the Rehbach Valley" to three of the once almost uncountable mills. The flour mill is mentioned as early as 1272, which continued to grind grain until 1964, but in earlier centuries was mainly used as a cutting mill for sawing beams and boards. The Großrehmühle, first mentioned in 1683, was also in operation as a grain and saw mill until after the Second World War. The Small Clay Mill, also first mentioned in 1683, had a more fortunate fate! It is still in agricultural use today and offers a refreshment stop for hikers: don't miss out on the smoked fish from the mill's own farm and the delicious quark sandwiches! You will find information boards at the historic mills, as they are on the route of the 18-kilometre-long mill trail, which passes more than ten of the water-powered mills. But we follow the sound of the Little Rehbach stream through its picturesque valley: often on natural paths, over hill, dale and root.

Trail description

At the point where we turn right onto a road in Unterneuensorg, the Herrenteich pond once divided the village, first mentioned in 1502, into a Guttenberg and an Episcopal part, each with an inn and a grist mill with a maximum of just 8 farmsteads. Even today, this Herrenteich is still regarded by the population as the dividing line between Oberneuensorg and Unterneuensorg - only, you can't currently stop off at an inn in either part of the village.

Following the signs for the circular hiking trail "Zur Weidmeser Höhe", we walk gently downhill along the edge of the forest near the beautiful valley of the Kleiner Rehbach stream and with a view of the houses of Vorder-, Mittel- and Hinterrehberg on near-natural paths. The course of the Kleiner Rehbach stream also accompanies us as we walk downhill in the forest to the hiking trail coming from Weidmes. Walking downhill through the young forest, it is not far to the wooden footbridge on which we cross the Kleiner Rehbach to a forest path. Now it is only about 500 meters to the Mühlenweg and the Kleinrehmühle mill, which ceased milling operations in 1931. It was also used as a wainwright's workshop and bread bakery for a time. Today, it offers hikers a cozy place to stop for refreshments.

Following the markings of the mill trail, we walk past the residential building and follow our circular hiking trail up through the forest and along the edge of the forest up to the heights - with a view of the last houses of Hinterrehberg. This is the highlight of our hiking trail, the Hinterrehberg chapel. It was built by the FWV Neuensorg local group. The chapel is well worth a visit. The body is made from a tree, which was painstakingly restored by Bruno Tittel in 2009. A meadow path leads us downhill into the forest valley of the Großer Rehbach, after a gentle ascent through the slightly wider valley to the open valley of the Rehbach shortly before the Großrehmühle mill. While the Mühlenweg trail changes to the other side of the valley, we continue along the edge of the forest to the restaurant in the street village of Großrehmühle, a district of Marktleugast, which has unfortunately been closed for a long time.

At the beginning of the road (2.2 km) to Grünlas, we turn right and follow a natural path between the forest and the Große Rehbach up the stream, passing the "Festplatz" and the Mariengrotte of the FWV local group Neuensorg. We hike slightly uphill on pleasant paths in the forest and after some time turn briefly right to the road, which we follow only briefly uphill to the left. Then we turn back into the forest and walk further uphill into the open.

After a short time, we come across the Galgen-Weg (KU 73) just before the old sports ground. Together with its markings, we turn right onto a grassy field and meadow path and follow it straight ahead through the meadows (views!) to the road leading to Großrehmühle on the heights. We cross it and follow the cul-de-sac. We pass the hamlet of Vorderrehberg and soon reach Oberneuensorg, 562 m above sea level, passing the new sports facility.

However, our circular walk only comes full circle when we walk through the elongated street village to our starting point in Unterneuensorg and reach our starting point at the Herrenteich pond (0.6 km).

26-06-2015 © Michael Kühnel