Walk around the castle Kost

Most visitors and tourists come to the castle Kost from Sobotka. After going down a steep hill into the valley, impressive silhouette of the castle with a massive White Tower peeks out.

The most beautiful view of the castle is from the beginning of Plakanek valley, where starts the most popular hiking trail leading from Kost /through Strehomsky Plakanek – through Vesecky Plakanek to Vesec near Sobotka and then along the road back to Kost (6 km), or through longer and better circuit via Libosovice and Prokop valley to Kost (8 km)/.

Strehomsky Plakanek begins at Kost and is one of the most beautiful valleys of the Czech Paradise. Sandstone peaks tower here on both sides of the valley and there are wetlands Klenice in the middle. It is worth to go through at least a few hundred meters during the visit of Kost, however if you do not plan a complete the circuit here.

Right at the beginning of the valley there is a small fountain with drinking water, so thirsty tourists can replenish water here. But in truth, almost no one does that since there are pubs and buffets with a cold beer only a few tens of meters farther away.

Both sides of the valley end with sharp rock towers that are more than twenty meters high.
 

After less than ¾ km connects from the east side a small side valley and the path here is often quite muddy. The route then continues to pond Obora and then to Vesecky Plakanek. But within a walk around the castle Kost it is the perfect place to turn and go back. There is almost always lit only one side of the valley thanks to position of the valley and its steep walls.

After returning back to the castle you can set off to Cerny rybnik (“the Black Pond”). Walk around the car park next to the castle and note that the castle looks completely different from the west – the typical White Tower is nearly covered by palace parts of the castle.
 

Cerny rybnik is one of the two ponds that are near the castle Kost. Historically there used to be also a third pond and they all worked as cunning protection – after targeted disruption of their dams become the terrain around the castle suddenly virtually impenetrable for foreign troops. Along the pond leads red trail to relatively remote southwestern part of the Czech Paradise – to the area around Príhrazske rocks and hill Muzsky. Or you can walk along the unmarked trail to Dobsin. The aim of the walk in this direction is a small rocky castle in sandstone massif above the pond.

Rock chambers are particularly interesting for children because they can crawl through the local chambers. It's much huger here than it first seems.

The view from the rock castle is quite nice – but Black pond looks in late summer more like a green pond.

Take the third short walk a few hundred meters along the White Pond

From the small fishing bridge there is a slightly different view of Kost Castle