Eiringsburg

The Eiringsburg is a vanished ring-wall fort on a low hill among the southern spurs of the Rhön mountains. It stands above the valley of the Franconian Saale near Arnshausen, now part of Bad Kissingen in Lower Franconia. The site occupies a small unnamed summit at 251 metres, surrounded on three sides by the Bad Kissingen golf course. It first appears in written records on Christmas Day 822, when a Frankish nobleman called Iring donated his entire estate in Kissingen and Lollbach—probably today’s Arnshausen—together with twelve unfree workers, to Fulda Abbey. Archaeologists believe the earthworks were raised in the 7th century as a refuge rather than a lordly residence. Excavations in 1910 and 1974 uncovered the entrance’s pincer gateway and other defences. Visitors today walk a grassy mound where the ramparts once stood. The golf course’s fairways curve around the base, giving distant views over the Saale valley. A simple information board marks the spot, and the surrounding farmland and wooded slopes show how the fort once commanded a wide horizon.