Istállós-kő

Start at the entrance to the Szalajka valley in Szilvásvárad (about 395 m; paid parking, often full on summer weekends). Walk up the valley road past the game park, the fish ponds, the Forestry Museum, the trout hatchery and the open-air forest museum to the Fátyol waterfall; the Szalajka-völgy forest railway covers the same stretch to the Gloriett clearing (about 455 m), its upper terminus. Above the uppermost pond, follow the east side of the lake to the Szalajka spring. Behind the spring the green cave waymark climbs a railed zigzag path to the Istállós-kő cave (Istállós-kői-barlang, 546 m) in about 15 minutes: a single large chamber behind a triangular entrance, free to visit, where Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon finds were excavated. Next to the cave pick up the green triangle: it first drops steeply beside the railing for about 30 m, then turns and climbs relentlessly through forest, about 400 m of ascent in 1.7 km on a less-trodden but clear path, to the summit (Istállós-kő erőse) with its cross on the south-western rim of the Bükk plateau. The true high point of the Bükk, Szilvási-kő (960.7 m), is about 10 minutes away across a small valley, the last 70 m without a path. Return the same way, or descend via the Horotna valley on the yellow waymark to the Szikla spring and walk or take the railway back to Szilvásvárad (14.7 km and 703 m of ascent for the full loop).