Forest-Water-Wool Trail

Radevormwald has belonged to the County of Berg since 1380 and was already an important center of cloth making in its early years. The entire tour (20,5 km) follows the hiking trail marker "Ra" and starts at the town hall parking lot in the center of Radevormwald. Crossing the historic market square, the trail leads via Espert into the romantic Wiebach Valley. Following the Wupperweg trail – marked with a diamond and the number 6 – through old mixed forests, the route passes the villages of Berg and Heidersteg before reaching the shore of the Wupper Reservoir. The trail continues past lush wetlands where the still-shy grey heron likes to hunt for smooth newts, common frogs, or the harmless, rare grass snake. Soon you arrive in Krebsöge, which was divided into two parts by the construction of the dam, the southern part of which is now submerged in the reservoir. The path along the banks of the Wupper River and the Bergisches Land Nature and Museum Route "Road of Work" leads through Wilhelmstal, past the former cloth factory, through the forest to Dahlhausen with its museum railway station, and on to Vogelsmühle, where former workers' dwellings and buildings of a former cloth factory bear witness to the heyday of the local textile industry. More can be found just around the next bend in the river in Dahlerau at the Wülfing Cloth Museum. The route then climbs to Obergrunewald and Herkingrade with its inn "Zur schönen Aussicht" (To the Beautiful View). Across hilly terrain, past the Uelfebad, Germany's smallest reservoir, and the Rococo garden house dating from 1772, the path approaches the center of Radevormwald once again. Directly opposite the town hall is the local history museum, which showcases the town's past.