Mirow and Bobolice

Mirow and Bobolice sit on two limestone crags a kilometre and a half apart on the Eagles' Nests trail, and the pair is the best short walk on the whole route because the path between them runs along the ridge with rock towers on both sides. They have had opposite fates. Mirow remains a stabilised ruin - gate, walls, the shell of a tower on the rock, open, free and atmospheric. Bobolice was bought by a private family in the 1990s and rebuilt from a similar ruin into a complete roofed castle with battlements, interiors and a ticket office, a reconstruction that divides Polish conservation opinion sharply between those who call it a rescue and those who call it a fantasy. The legend attached to them says the two were held by brothers who dug a tunnel between the crags and quarrelled over treasure and a woman hidden in it. No tunnel has been found.

What you actually see

• Two crag castles - a kilometre and a half apart on the same limestone ridge.
• Mirow as a ruin - gate, walls and tower shell, open and free.
• Bobolice rebuilt - a complete roofed castle reconstructed from the 1990s.
• The ridge path - rock towers on both sides, the best short walk on the trail.

When to go

April to October. Half a day for both.

Honest expectations

Bobolice's rebuild is modern work, not surviving fabric, and it is ticketed. Mirow's ruin has no facilities. Weekends bring crowds and the small car parks fill. The connecting path is rocky and slippery when wet.

Nearby

Ogrodzieniec is south along the trail; Czestochowa is north-west.