Fortlet Lochmühle and Fort Schrenzer

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Fortlet Lochmühle

   The Lochmühle is a small fortlet on the Limes in the Taunus, near Wehrheim and the famous Saalburg, and it guarded a spot where the frontier crossed the valley of the Erlenbach stream. Fortlets like this were small outposts, housing a handful of soldiers who watched the border and controlled traffic, and they formed a link between the watchtowers and the larger forts. Its remains are modest, but the location, in a quiet valley surrounded by forest, has a peaceful charm. The name comes from a nearby mill, now a popular leisure park for families with play areas and farm animals.

   Read the complete Fortlet Lochmühle write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Fortlet Lochmühle is where the day begins. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber.

2. 2. Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber

   Friedberg's castle stands on a basalt ridge above the Wetterau, a walled enclosure so large it is almost a town of its own, with a tall round tower, the Adolfsturm, rising above the trees. What most visitors walking through the castle gate do not know is that they are standing on a Roman fort. The legions chose this same ridge in the first century AD, and a fort with a civil settlement grew up here, linked by road to the Limes a few kilometres to the north and west.

   Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort Schrenzer.

3. 3. Fort Schrenzer

   Butzbach sits at the northern edge of the Wetterau, a broad, fertile plain north of Frankfurt, where the Taunus ends and the land opens out into fields of wheat, sugar beet and rapeseed. The Romans prized this land, and their frontier made a long detour around it, swinging east and then south to include the Wetterau within the empire. Near Butzbach, on the Schrenzer hill, they built a small fort, the Kastell Schrenzer, to guard the frontier where it left the Taunus and began its loop around the plain. The fort and the frontier nearby are part of the frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage site, and the remains, low earthworks in the woods, can be visited on foot.

   Read the complete Fort Schrenzer write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 32 km into the recorded legs you reach Fort Schrenzer. Next is back through Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber.

4. 4. back through Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Fort site and civil settlement of Friedber, late in the day. Next is Fortlet Lochmühle.

5. 5. Fortlet Lochmühle

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fortlet Lochmühle write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Fortlet Lochmühle. That is the ride.