Buchenloch Cave 54568 Gerolstein
The Buchenloch cave is located on the north side of the Munterley in the nature reserve of the Gerolstein Dolomites. It is open all year round, but is only freely accessible via a ladder.
Stromatopores, colony-forming sponge-like marine animals that have long been extinct, created today's reef in the Gerolstein Dolomites. In the middle there is a narrow, high hole: the Buchenloch cave. It is thirty meters long and four meters wide - it got its name because of the predominant tree species in the forest around it.
Through the times
Eifel natives of the Neolithic period made themselves comfortable here, as evidenced by tool finds and bones in and around the cave. That was around 30,000 years ago. It was only 75 years ago that residents of the town of Gerolstein took refuge here to seek protection from Allied bombs. Today, bats find suitable roosts for hibernation and summer hunting breaks in the depths of the narrow, high cave. There are still human visitors. If you want to get into the cave, which is freely accessible all year round, you have to climb a narrow, steep wooden staircase.
Stage 9 of the Eifelsteig leads over the Gerolstein Dolomites; one of its partner paths, the rock path with the northern part of the “Gerolstein Dolomites Eight”, leads to the cave.