World Heritage Insight Walk: Traces of the Past in the Clausthal Valley

This circular walk through the Clausthal Valley is 3.3 km long.

On the walk you will get to know parts of the Upper Harz Water Management System, which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage in the Harz.

Water from the storage ponds flowed through ditches to the water wheels at the mines. Water power was needed to hoist the extracted ore to the surface.

 

Rainwater also seeped into the mines constantly. The water wheels were also used to drive the pumps that pumped the water out of the mines.

On your walk you will pass the Rosenhof Wheel Chambers. These are stone-walled chambers that once contained the giant water wheels. A very special point of interest!

From the Rosenhof Wheel Chambers the walk goes through the Clausthal Valley to the Ottiliae Shaft. There you can look at the oldest existing iron head frame. It was built at around the same time as the Eiffel Tower.

At the Ottiliae Shaft there was once an enormous industrial area. At the time the installations were very modern. Some of the mines in this area were already here 450 years ago.

The landscape here has changed a lot in the past 150 years. The hills of mining waste material got higher and higher and the valley was filled in more and more. A lovely walk through a sunken landscaped.

From the Rosenhof Wheel Chambers turn left and stay on the tarmac path. After around 300 m you can go to the Altensegener Rösche drainage adit on the left if you want to. An adit is a water tunnel that was used to drain water out of the mines.

You can also just stay on the tarmac path until you reach the gates of the municipal storage area. The path turns right uphill along the fence. Then you turn left along the tarmac road. After 200 m some steps will take you up to the Ottiliae shaft.

On the grounds of the Ottiliae Shaft the route goes to the right of a shed and then along the railway track.

Continue to the former machine house of an inclined lift. Here the path turns left down the hill.

You will pass an old loading station and then turn left down a few steps. Go along the route of the inclined lift to the next loading station. Here you can go to the sand heaps from the ore crushing mills if you want to. They are only a few metres off the route.

The route of the old inclined lift then goes into some woods. Stay on the path for around 200 m until you come to a small clearing. Here you can go a few more steps to the "nose" of the waste heap for a wonderful view into the Zellerfeld Valley.

On the way back you will pass to the right of an old chimney. Continue down the hill until you reach another path. There you should turn left. At a house you will come to a gravel path. There you should turn right to the Ottiliae Shaft.

Pass the head frame and follow the tarmac road as far as a big left-hand bend. At the wooden hut a path turns off taking you back to the Rosenhof Wheel Chambers.