Juniper Trail (Stroll #12)

The juniper has many faces – and many legends surrounding it. This 5,5-kilometer circular hiking trail allows you to discover the numerous facets of this evergreen tree, which shaped large parts of the Bergisches Land region just 200 years ago.

Since the Middle Ages, the people who settled here had increasingly cleared forests to obtain firewood and building timber. Because the resulting meadows were also intensively grazed, large heathlands developed, where the undemanding juniper, with its sharp needles, was one of the few plants able to survive.

The Branscheid juniper heath, through which this circular trail leads, is one of the last remaining juniper heaths in the Oberberg region and is protected from being overgrown by the forest with the help of humans and grazing sheep and goats. Along the trail, information panels explain the importance of juniper as a spice in cooking as well as its healing properties, for example, against kidney and bladder ailments.

There are also interesting insights into the myths surrounding the juniper. For example, people used to offer wool and food to the tree when a child was ill. Especially at dusk, its uneven growth pattern can be truly frightening. All the more reason to discover the secrets of the juniper along this path.

For a few hundred meters, the Wacholderweg (Juniper Trail) runs along the route of the "Bergischer Panoramasteig" (Bergisch Panorama Trail).

The trail has a total of 5 information panels. We would like to thank Susanne Maass, who maintains the trail as a volunteer trail steward.