Orlicke Hory

The Orlicke hory run about fifty kilometres along the Polish border between the Broumov region and the Kralicky Sneznik, reaching 1115 metres at Velka Destna, and they are the gentlest of the Czech border ranges: rounded ridges, spruce forest broken by open pasture, scattered timber houses in the local Orlicke style with wide low roofs, and no dramatic rock. The ridge trail, the Jiraskova cesta, runs the length of it and is the classic route, walked in summer and skied in winter on one of the better-maintained cross-country networks. Along the crest and the slopes below runs a line of concrete fortification built in the 1930s as part of the Czechoslovak border defences, several hundred small bunkers and a few artillery works, some restored as museums and many simply standing in the fields. Villages here are small and the range is far less visited than the Krkonose.

What you actually see

• A fifty-kilometre gentle ridge - rounded, forested, to 1115 metres at Velka Destna.
• Timber houses - the local style with wide low roofs, scattered on the slopes.
• 1930s bunkers - hundreds of them along the crest, some open as museums.
• The Jiraskova ridge trail - walked in summer, skied in winter.

When to go

May to October, or the ski season. Two days.

Honest expectations

The range is quiet but also fairly plain - it does not have the drama of the sandstone or the Krkonose. Museums in the bunkers keep short seasonal hours. Public transport to the ridge is limited.

Nearby

Broumov walls are north; Kralicky Sneznik is south.