The Boubin Primeval Forest

The Boubin primeval forest is a fenced core of old-growth on the slopes of Boubin hill, one of the earliest forest reserves in Europe, protected since the middle of the nineteenth century after a local forester persuaded the estate to leave it standing. Inside the fence nothing is cut, cleared or tidied: spruce, fir and beech grow, fall, rot and regenerate on their own, and the ground is a chaos of dead wood, moss and seedlings growing on old trunks. You cannot walk into the core itself, but the marked path runs along the fence, close enough to see how different an untouched stand looks from managed forest. A small dark pool sits at the foot of the trail and a lookout tower stands on the summit.

What you actually see

• The reserve fence - the boundary path, with untouched forest on one side and worked forest on the other.
• The dead wood - fallen trunks left to rot, with young trees rooted along the tops of them.
• Boubinske jezirko - the small dark pool at the start of the walk, a former timber-floating reservoir.
• The summit tower - the wooden lookout on Boubin, above the treetops at just over 1,300 metres.

When to go

May to October. Late spring is best for beech leaf and birdsong, autumn for colour and quiet. The path is muddy after rain and holds snow well into April on the north side. Weekday mornings are close to empty. Fog is common on the ridge and turns the old forest into something worth the walk on its own.

Honest expectations

You never actually enter the primeval core, which disappoints people expecting to walk among giants; the best trees are seen through a fence. Much of the route is ordinary managed forest. Storms and bark beetle have thinned the surrounding stands badly. The climb to the summit tower is a steady hour, and the tower is often closed outside the main season.

Nearby

Kubova Hut and the rest of the Sumava plateau lie west; Vimperk with its castle is to the north.