The small fortlet at Burgsalach stood on the Raetian Limes, the eastern section of Rome's frontier in Germany. Dating from a late phase of the frontier, it had walls of stone and was compact and well defended, more like a small castle than the usual timber watchtower, and its name lives on in the village of Burgsalach nearby. The outline of the walls can still be traced on the ground, and like the rest of the frontier it is part of the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Here, in the hills of Middle Franconia, the Raetian Limes was not a palisade but a stone wall, which local legend later attributed to the Devil himself, calling it the Teufelsmauer.
The area is part of the Franconian Jura, a limestone plateau with dry grasslands, juniper heaths, beech forests and deep valleys. To the south, the Altmühl valley cuts a winding course through the Jura, with rock formations and cliffs, and it is one of the most scenic river valleys in Bavaria. The region around Solnhofen, nearby, is famous for its fine limestone, quarried for lithographic printing and the source of the Archaeopteryx fossils.
Weißenburg in Bayern, eight kilometres away, is a delightful old town with medieval walls and gates, and its Roman past is impressive: the remains of a fort, a reconstructed gate, Roman baths and a museum displaying a treasure hoard of silver and bronze objects found in a garden in 1979. The riding is pleasant, with country roads crossing the Jura plateau, gently rolling, with good surfaces and little traffic. The Altmühl valley roads are more scenic, with tight bends and views of the cliffs, but busier in summer with cyclists and tourists.
Weißenburg has fuel, supermarkets and a good choice of restaurants and beer gardens. Franconia is known for its breweries, and many villages have their own. Try Schäufele, roast pork shoulder with crispy crackling, Franconian sausages with sauerkraut or Karpfen, fried carp, in the months with an R. On a summer evening, a beer garden under chestnut trees is hard to beat.