Hausruck

The Hausruck is a low range of hills in Upper Austria’s Alpine foreland, stretching about thirty kilometres across the countryside. Its highest point, the Göblberg, reaches 801 metres, and the wooded crest is mostly flat, standing between 700 and 800 metres above sea level. Dense spruce forests cover the centre, while the edges give way to small fields and meadows. The region’s rivers flow north to the Inn or south to the Traun and Danube, though no natural lakes dot the landscape. Teichs and marshy clearings appear only rarely. The Hausruck’s wet climate brings up to twelve hundred millimetres of rain each year, with cool summers and occasional winter snow breaks. Strong winds sweep the ridges, making it one of the first places in Austria to host wind-power plants. Beneath the surface lie layers of clay, sand and gravel, along with pockets of brown coal and small oil and gas deposits. Geologists have traced these sediments back millions of years, when the area lay above sea level while the Alps were still forming. Visitors walk quiet forest tracks that follow the even skyline, passing the occasional clearing where cattle graze on rich meadows. The villages along the flanks are small and scattered, their houses set among orchards and hayfields. From the Göblberg summit the view stretches across rolling wooded hills, while the valleys below carry the sound of rushing streams. The contrast between dense woodland and open farmland gives the Hausruck a calm, rural atmosphere.