Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a and Monheim-Haus Bürgel

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a

   Between Rengsdorf and Anhausen the Westerwald is open farmland and beech woods, and a Roman frontier ran straight through it. The Upper German-Raetian Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2005, started on the Rhine near Rheinbrohl and ran for hundreds of kilometres to the Danube, a line of timber towers, a palisade, and in places a ditch and bank. The code WP 1/39 a is not poetry, it is bookkeeping: the old German Reichs-Limeskommission numbered the frontier by section and then by watchtower, and archaeologists still use their numbers. Here, a section of the line survives as a low bank and shallow hollow in the grass, which you will walk past without noticing unless someone points it out.

   Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a is where the day begins. Next is Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1.

2. 2. Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1

   A forest closer to a city than most people realise, the Kottenforst spreads over a low ridge between Bonn and the Eifel foothills, and the Dürrenbruch is one of the quiet corners of its northern half. The old prince-electors of Cologne used it as a hunting ground, cutting long straight rides through the trees that radiate like the spokes of a wheel, which is why the forest feels strangely geometrical when you look at a map. Today it is a Bonn-area refuge of beech, oak and hornbeam, cut by cycle paths and walking trails.

   Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1 comes up about 82 km into the recorded legs. Next is Monheim-Haus Bürgel.

3. 3. Monheim-Haus Bürgel

   Haus Bürgel is a manor farm that sits on top of a Roman fort, quite literally. The walls of a late Roman fortification, built in the fourth century to guard the Rhine frontier, form part of the foundations and outer walls of the medieval and later farm buildings, and the site is part of the Lower German Limes World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2021. Between Monheim and Düsseldorf-Urdenbach, it lies in a broad meadow landscape on the right bank of the Rhine.

   Read the complete Monheim-Haus Bürgel write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 147 km into the recorded legs you reach Monheim-Haus Bürgel. Next is back through Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1.

4. 4. back through Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Kottenforst Nord | Dürrenbruch 1, late in the day. Next is Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a.

5. 5. Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Limessection between watchtowers WP 1/39 a. That is the ride.