Siegerland-Höhenring

Siegerland-Höhenring (Siegerland mountain ridge circular route) is an approximately 142-kilometer-long / 88-mile-long hiking trail that circles approximately the (old) district of Siegen and some communities in the upper district of Altenkirchen.

Course

At the borders of the towns of Freudenberg, Kreuztal and Hilchenbach to the district of Olpe - and thus between the Siegerland and the Sauerland - the hiking trail runs not far from the Ruhr-Sieg watershed at the same time along the Landhecke, and then, described clockwise, from about the Helberhauser Schlag to be continued north of the Ferndorfbach spring along the Rhine-Weser watershed in a southerly direction and to Würgendorf-Wasserscheide along the same route as the Rothaarsteig. From its northernmost point at Welschen Ennest to Dornbruch/Dollenbruch north of Dahlbruch, the Siegerland Höhenring is congruent with the Siegerlandweg. North of Hilchenbach-Lützel, the hiking trail passes the Giller, which belongs to Grund, with the Giller Tower and the Ginsberger Heide. Between Lützel and Hainchen, the path that runs here along the Eisenstraße then changes to the Sieg-Lahn watershed, essentially following it to the southern district area. Benfe and Großenbach are intermediate stations in Wittgenstein, an area and former district close to Siegerland. South and south-east of the source of the Lahn, the Siegerland-Höhenring and the Rothaarsteig run about a kilometer along the E1 European long-distance hiking trail. From Wilgersdorf past the Haiger industrial area Kalteiche near Haigerseelbach, where it crosses the federal highway B 54, the Siegerland-Höhenring runs a few kilometers through the Hessian Lahn-Dill district to Würgendorf-Wasserscheide.

From the Wasserscheide district of Würgendorf, the path between Holzhausen and the main town of Burbach leads into the Burbach municipality and turns behind Burbach-Lützeln towards the Siegerland airport. At its southernmost point in Lippe, it reunites with the European long-distance hiking trail E1, this time in the opposite direction of travel, in order to run together with it, with two short interruptions, to Freusburg in a north-westerly direction and leads from Lippe after a sharp bend to the north-west, initially further across the state border to Rhineland-Palatinate in the direction of Herdorf, from where it goes past the Druidenstein and down to Freusburg. There it crosses the Sieg at its lowest point at the Freusburger Mühle. The path continues northwards and up again to Niederfischbach, then past Oberasdorf and Plittershagen to Friesenhagen. It crosses the state border between Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia twice in quick succession. Between Hünsborn and the Scheiderwald passage, the Wenden surrounding trail and the Siegerland-Höhenring mostly coincide, but sometimes run side by side in the same direction.

Landmarks

The Siegerland-Höhenring passes under the Hüttentalstraße motorway (HTS) between Altenwenden and Bockenbach and also between Altenkleusheim and Krombach's bold beech under the HTS feeder road to the Krombach motorway access. In Burgholdinghausen, the route runs along the source of the Littfe, above Oberndorf at the source of the Ferndorf and south of the settlement of Lützel, which belongs to Hilchenbach, not far from the sources of the Eder, Sieg, Lahn and Ilse, further along the Ochsenborn. In doing so, you will pass the highest mountain in the Siegerland "Riemen" some distance away and walk along the main ridge of the Rothaargebirge. The Gillerturm is a vantage point with visibility of more than 60 kilometers in good weather, directly on the Siegerland Höhenring. The major regional event “KulturPur” takes place every spring on the neighboring Giller.

Villages along the trail

Along Siegerland Höhenring, the path crosses twelve villages and leads directly or indirectly past around 70 more.

Villages along Siegerland-Höhenring

clockwise, beginning in the north
inside circle	traversed	outside circle
Burgholdinghausen		Welschen Ennest
Müsen		Silberg
Dahlbruch
Hilchenbach		Brachthausen
		Heinsberg
Hadem
Helberhausen
Oberndorf
		Zinse
Vormwald
Grund
	Ginsberger Heide / Giller
	Lützel
Sohlbach	(Siedlung Lützel)
	Benfe
	Großenbach
Walpersdorf
		Welschengeheu
		Heiligenborn
Werthenbach
Hainchen		Rittershausen
		Offdilln
Gernsdorf		Dillbrecht
Rudersdorf		Fellerdilln
		Steinbach
		Industrial area Kalteiche
	Wasserscheide
Würgendorf		Holzhausen
Burbach		Niederdresselndorf
(Burbach)		Lützeln
Gewerbepark Siegerland		Siegerland Airport
	Lippe
		Daaden military training area
		Emmertshausen
Wahlbach
		Daaden
Altenseelbach
Struthütten
	Herdorf
		Sassenroth
		Grünebach
	Offhausen
		Herkersdorf
Katzenbach
	Kirchen
	Freusburg	Wehbach
	Niederfischbach	(Fischbacherhütte)
		Langenbach
Oberasdorf
Plittershagen		Löcherbach
	Hofgut Stöcken	Löcherbach
	Oberstöcken
		Obersolbach
		Mittelsolbach
		Niedersolbach
	Friesenhagen
	Crottorf	Crottorf castle
		Unterweidenbruch
		Weierseifen
		Schlade
		Römershagen
Wildenburg castle
(Wildenburg)
	(Wildenburg railway station)
Heiligenborn
Hühnerkamp
	Löffelberg
Bockseifen		Hünsborn
Bühl
Industriegeb. Wilhelmshöhe
Oberholzklau
Meiswinkel
Oberhees
		Altenhof
		Girkhausen
Osthelden		Schönau-Altenwenden
Bockenbach		(Altenwenden)
Eichen
Krombach		Scheiderwald
(Krombach)		Altenkleusheim
(Krombach)		Neuenkleusheim
Littfeld		Kruberg
		Rahrbach

Extreme points

The northernmost point of the route is near the Littfe spring in the Kirchhundem-Welschen Ennest area, while the easternmost and highest point is on the Jagdberg in the town of Netphen. The southernmost point of the Siegerland-Höhenring is in the Burbach district of Lippe and the westernmost point is not far from the moated Crottorf Castle, which belongs to Friesenhagen.

51.038643°N 8.013900°E / 51.038643; 8.013900 (northernmost point of the Siegerland-Höhenring)

50.882603°N 8.270365°E / 50.882603; 8.270365 (easternmost and at the same time highest point)

50.708535°N 8.059648°E / 50.708535; 8.059648 (southernmost point of the Siegerland-Höhenring)

50.904822°N 7.786492°E / 50.904822; 7.786492 (westernmost point of the Siegerland-Höhenring)

Waymarker

Sauerländischer Gebirgsverein (Sauerland Mountain Association) (SGV) uses an upside-down square (colloquially “rhombus”) as a sign for the district hiking trail of an SGV district. This can be supplemented with the number "1" to distinguish the marking from those of the same type.

Cultural specifics

The Siegerland Höhenring runs along the Ruhr-Sieg watershed, which in South Westphalia and on the border between Sauerland and Wildenburger Land also depicts the bundle of isoglosses from the Benrather ("maken" and "machen" for make) and Uerdinger ("ik" and "ich" for I/me) lines, and then (clockwise) onto the Sieg-Eder watershed and the Sieg-Lahn watershed, which is almost identical to the St. Goar line ("das" and "dat" for that) in the Siegen-Wittgenstein district and on the border with Hesse. The St. Goar line is crossed twice in the direction of Wittgenstein and Hesse.

Web links

• Siegerland-Höhenring, Stage tour in six stages (German), siegen-wittgenstein.de, seen 2022-05-25
• map: Route of the Siegerland Höhenring and waymark signs (German description), hiking.waymarkedtrails.org, seen 2022-05-25
• map: Route of the Siegerland Höhenring, openstreetmap.org, seen 2022-05-25