The Szendrő-Rudabánya hills are a modest ridge of low wooded hills in northeastern Hungary, between the Bódva and Sajó valleys, and they are not on any tourist itinerary. That is a large part of their charm. This is the quiet borderland near Slovakia, with small villages, orchards, vineyards and forests of oak and hornbeam, where the roads are empty and the pace slows to that of a cart.
Rudabánya, the little town at the heart of it, has a remarkable past. Its name means ore mine, and iron, copper and silver were dug here from medieval times into the twentieth century; the old open-pit workings left a deep hole that has since filled with an emerald lake. In the same pits, in the late 1960s, miners came across fossils of a Miocene ape now called Rudapithecus hungaricus, about ten million years old, an important find for understanding the evolution of the great apes. A small museum in the town tells both stories, and the rust-coloured rocks around the pit hint at why people dug here at all.
The riding is gentle and undemanding, with roads looping through the hills between Rudabánya, Szendrő and Edelény. They are narrow, often patched and sometimes broken at the edges, so leave a margin and keep an eye out for horse-drawn carts, tractors and children on bikes in the villages. Corners are friendly, gradients mild, and the views from the ridgetops over the Bódva valley towards the Slovak karst hills are lovely in late afternoon light. Wine cellars cut into the hillsides, like the ones around Szendrő, hint at a long tradition of small-scale winemaking.
Szendrő has the remains of a hilltop castle and a few basic shops; Edelény, about eleven kilometres away, is the nearest town of any size, with fuel, groceries and the restored L'Huillier-Coburg mansion, one of the largest Baroque country houses in Hungary. Miskolc, the regional city, is further south for anything else. Bring cash for small places, expect limited English, and enjoy being somewhere few riders ever reach. The Aggtelek caves, on the karst plateau to the north, make an excellent next stop.