From Freiamt to Seetal Valley via Horben on Mount Lindenberg

Wednesday January 29, 2025 -- Another beautiful day locally, so again we chose to walk close to home, along a small elevation just to the west of where we live (in fact, a stretch of a hill we can see from our balcony window) in the Freiamt Region of Canton Aargau.

The low range is called the Lindenberg (which forms the border between Cantons Aargau and Luzern), and considering this is so close to where we live, it is almost embarassing that we have never walked there before. As there are also mostly paved roads and forest roads in that region, it is ideal for wintertime on a sunny day with no snow.

We took a bus as high as we could to a small village called Brunnwil (above Beinwil in the Freiamt) and only had to walk about 100 uphill meters to the crest of this hill, i.e. 40 minutes to the popular restaurant Horben, where you have some very spectacular views of the Alps to the south on a clear day, as it turned out to be this afternoon. (We had hoped to have lunch there, but they are currently closed for longer holidays till mid-February, which might have been a good thing as there were few cars on the road). On other side of this hill is a valley called the Seetal, (i.e. Lake Valley, because there are two lakes here called Baldeggersee and Hallwilersee), where we descended to the fortress ruins of Lieli (where we had been once before in June of 2022 having walked up to there from Lake Baldeggersee --> Those photos HERE), and then headed south to the town of Hohenrain, where there is a Medieval walled compound established in the 12th Century by the Order of St.John.

Although we had good visibility and sunshine, there were also some cold winds on the first half of our walk. But we were out in the fresh air for almost five hours, staring at 11:30 and catching the 16:15 bus via Hochdorf for the 1:20 trip home.

Once again we have the most fantastic view of the Bernese Alps past Lake Zug on our way with the train in the direction of Rotkreuz and Luzern.

From Rotkreuz, our train travels north along the Reuss River to Muri, where we catch a bus as high up along the Horben hill as we can go, a tiny village called Brunnwil above Beinwil. In the background we can see Mount Zug, which is our own home mountain.

Starting in Brunnwil (the highest we could go by bus) at 11:30, we walked almost 11 kilometers over the top of the mountain range and down the west side into the Seetal Valley, ending our hike in Oberebersol south of Hohenrain at 4:10 p.m. The Canton border beteween Aargau on the East and Luzern on the west passes right along the crest of this range.

After a one-hour trip by train and bus, we start at about 11:30 on our hike southwards from Brunnwil toward Horben, which is at the summit of this low mountain range.

We could have started on a paved road higher up, but chose to try a narrow forest trail into a small ravine, which wasn't the best choice on this day, as the trail was very, very muddy. (There was a real fear of slipping!)

As this was not even an official trail, there wasn't even a bridge to cross the small stream! It had rained the night before as well.... so maybe we'll stick to roads and better trails for now!

Back out of the little ravine, we get this view to the east in the valley of the Reuss River, and the region called the Freiamt. The town below is called Beinwil and features a pilgrim church which is cultural building of national importance.

Only a small uphill climb to get to the little Horben Castle and Gasthaus at the summit of mountain range.

View to the city of Zug and Lake Zug to the east.

The Horben Castle is privately-owned, but used to be a place of rest and recreation for the folks at the Muri Monastery in the valley to the east.

Next to the castle is the little St.Wendelin's chapel, where we found a convenient bench in the sunshine and out of the wind, where we had our picnic lunch.

Far to the east we see the summits of the Glärnisch mountains, currently in the clouds.

This is the Gasthaus Horben where we would have had some lunch, if they hadn't currently been closed for personal vacations!

From Horben we start walking south along the crest of the mountain, with this great view into the Uri Alps, and Mount Rigi.

The birds of prey which we see along all our hikes are simply magnificent.

I love these barns with the walls that can be opened so that the cows can enjoy fresh air even when they stay in the barn!

A final view to Lake Zug, where the clouds to the east are slowly receding. We now head down the hillside to the west.

Ah, this fellow is enjoying the sunshine!

To the west is Lake Baldeggersee. We are standing at the location of the Nünegg fortress ruins, above the village of Lieli, which we also visited in June 2022 when we walked up to here from the lake below. (Photos HERE).

Even though we had been in this fortress before, we climbed up to the viewing platform again. The Lieli Fortress (also known as Nünegg) dates from at least 1223 and is one of the largest and best-preserved fortress ruins in Canton Luzern. It fortunately did not succumb to theft of its rocks for other buildings, and has also received a great deal of restoration in the 1930's and later in the 70's and 80's.

Inside of the Nünegg castle. Even though we had been here before, it was just a short walk to get up to the viewing platform.

This is the view across the rooftops of Lieli down to Lake Baldeggersee from the viewing platform at the top of the Nünegg fortress.

On the viewing platform of the Nünegg fortress.

There is Urs up there!

Last time we were here we also saw this little building, which is an apartment for beehives, and we walked down to have a look at it again. The little building is part of the Inventory of protected small monuments of Canton Luzern. i.e. it may not be destroyed.

A final look at the Nünegg Fortress as we continue southward along the Pilgrim Trail to Hohenrain. By now we didn't have any cold wind any more and it was pleasant to keep walking.

Admiring the farmhouses along the way.

Once-in-a-while we come across peacocks kept on the farms They are usually quite loud birds!

Another cute little self-serve farm shop. We had a look inside, but didn't buy anything (you could even make yourself a cup of coffee in there!). It looks like this used to be an animal shelter.

Beneath the little shop building live a couple of geese. Their honking is louder than the peacocks' cries. Even though they are funny, it would be too loud for me!

Further along we saw another similar building to the bee house below the fortress. A sign next to the building tells all about the importance of bees, therefore we think this might also have been a bee-house.

Further along we came across another interesting site, a small chapel above a pond on a farm called Ibenmoos. This is the "Lady of the Snow" chapel, a pilgrim church first mentioined in documents of 1661, but assumed to be older.

Urs likes to clean his shoes along the way, in the hopes they won't get dirty again! We would have sat here for a while, but the farmer next door was filling his tank with manure for spreading on the fields, and not only did it make a lot of noise, it also smelled!

Details of the little church at Ibenmoos.

Rock art discovered on the other side of the farmhouse.

So many "signs" celebrating the birth of several children here: "Joel, Livio, Jonas, Ramona, Melanie, Flavia and Fabienne"!!

The rest of the way is straight to the south... in the meantime the clouds had lifted and the mountains of Central Switzerland looked huge and close up!

To the west, Lake Baldeggersee. The best thing about Central Switzerland is the grass is green even in winter!

Down below is the town of Hohenrain, which was the planned end of our hike. But at the tree ahead was a bench, and we hurried to take possession so we could have a coffee break there and enjoy this fantastic view.

Coffee break (2:45)! The structure in front of the bench is a panel with a very beautifully-made panorama photo of the range of Alps we could see from here (there was also such a panel up at the Fortress Platform), with all the peaks named. This is very helpful to us to identify mountains we are interested in!

We studied this panel for quite a while because we were looking for the name of a "horn" peak we had seen from our hike on Lake Luzern a few days earlier. We think the horn was called "Brünig Haupt".

The view from our coffee-break bench: The town of Hohenrain below has a walled compound containing a church.

After a 15-minute break on the bench, we continued on our way.

How is it possible that this kestrel can actually balance on this very thin branch?

Easy road to walk on. Up ahead is Mount Rigi.

Close-up view of Mount Rigi slightly to the southwest.

Last stretch before reaching Hohenrain

Past the roofs of Hohenrain we can even see the tower at Mt.Titlis.

More neat houses along the way!

A whole lot of cats along the way! Some stopped for a few strokes, but most seemed intent on joining some pre-arranged cat meeting!

Reaching the compound walls at Hohenrain. This entire site was established around 1175 as the first branch of the Order of St.John in Switzerland. It is called the "Jahanniterkommende" and includes a church, a red tower, a commander's house and various other buildings.

Into the compound's courtyard

Details of the castle church which is located within the compound walls.

Interior of St.John the Baptist Church. The church was rebuilt in Baroque style in 1694.

Dates on the buildings read 1531 and 1689

This building is appropriately called the "Red Tower". There is a museum here which one can visit for free for a couple of hours every first Sunday of the month from April to October!

View from the compound walls!

Because it was now late afternoon, the Alps to the south were looking the best so far!

Instead of taking a bus here at Hohenrain, we had enough time to walk to the next village, so we left Hohenrain at 3:45 p.m. and continued south to the next village called Oberebersol.

Additional stretch to Oberebersol, where we knew we could catch a bus at 4:15 on the main road there.

Another buzzard sitting in a nearby field.

Final look up to the Johanniter Compound in Hohenrain as we wait for the bus at the road in Oberebersol. We got on the bus at 4:15 p.m. and were home by 5:45 p.m.

What our hike looks like on Google Satellite Maps. We started in Brunnwil above Beinwil and walked over the top of the hill via Horben to Lieli, and then to Hohenrain.