Bilstein

The Bilstein is a 665-metre-high mountain in the Vogelsberg range east-south-east of Busenborn, near Schotten. Its summit is mostly covered in dense forest, but bare basalt cliffs rise above the treetops. These cliffs provide a clear vantage point across the surrounding landscape. The cliffs consist of basanite, a dark volcanic rock formed when magma rose quickly from the upper mantle. Embedded in the rock are greenish olivine nodules, fragments of peridotite carried up with the lava. The exposed rock face marks an old volcanic fissure that once extended north through the Gackerstein to Ulrichstein. On clear days the view stretches from the Odenwald in the south-west to Frankfurt’s skyline in the west-south-west, with the Taunus and Westerwald ranges visible in the west and north-west. The summit can be reached from a small car park on the L 3338 between Breungeshain and Sichenhausen in about fifteen to twenty minutes. The route follows a marked trail southwest then turns onto a steep, rough path near a sign for the Bilstein. From Busenborn a longer but quieter path climbs more than a kilometre up the slope, ending with a short scramble over the final rocks. Each year, on the Saturday before Pentecost, young men from Busenborn raise and guard a maypole on the summit overnight.