Watchtower WP 3/42* and Fortlet Adolfseck

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Watchtower WP 3/42*

   Glashütten takes its name from the glass huts that worked in these forests in the Middle Ages, when the endless beech and oak of the high Taunus supplied fuel for the furnaces and potash for the glass. Today it is a quiet village spread over a saddle below the Großer Feldberg, at around 880 metres the highest summit in the Taunus, and the Roman frontier passes right by it. Watchtower 3/42 stood on this stretch of the Limes, where the bank and ditch run through the forest along the ridge; near the Feldberg summit, the remains of a small Roman fort, the Feldbergkastell, show where a garrison guarded a pass through the mountains.

   Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/42* write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Watchtower WP 3/42* is where the day begins. Next is Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21*.

2. 2. Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21*

   The Taunus does not shout. It is a rounded, forested upland north of Wiesbaden and Frankfurt, and the Roman frontier crossed it on its way from the Rhine to the Main. These numbered watchtowers near Idstein belong to the Upper Germanic frontier, which in this part of Hesse ran through woods and clearings along the high ground. Archaeologists have recorded the tower positions along the line, and the asterisks in the label are their way of marking sites that are uncertain or only partly known. In practice you find woodland, a trail and the faint trace of an old bank.

   Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* comes up 17 km in. Next is Fortlet Adolfseck.

3. 3. Fortlet Adolfseck

   The Aar is a small river that winds north from the Taunus towards the Lahn, through a narrow, wooded valley that has served as a route through the hills since ancient times. Where the Roman frontier crossed the valley near Adolfseck, today a district of Bad Schwalbach, the Romans built a fortlet to control the crossing, a small, square fortification with a garrison of a few dozen soldiers. The remains have been excavated and are marked on the ground, and the stretch of frontier nearby is part of the World Heritage frontiers of the Roman Empire. Above the valley, the ruins of a medieval castle, also called Adolfseck, add another layer of history.

   Read the complete Fortlet Adolfseck write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   34 km in you reach Fortlet Adolfseck. Next is back through Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21*.

4. 4. back through Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21*

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21* write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   back through Watchtower WP 3/19* to 3/21*, late in the day. Next is Watchtower WP 3/42*.

5. 5. Watchtower WP 3/42*

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Watchtower WP 3/42* write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Watchtower WP 3/42*. That is the ride.