Stamping point 126 / Lochstein, Oberer Schalker Graben

The Lochstein stamping station is located directly on the Oberer Schalker Graben between the settlement of Festenburg and Clausthal-Zellerfeld.

The “Obere Schalk­er Graben”, built in 1716, col­lect­ed the moun­tain water on its 8,980 m long path from the south­ern slope of the Schalke to Hah­nen­klee and led it to the Hah­nen­klee mines via sev­er­al ponds.

There were per­fo­rat­ed stones in all min­ing oper­a­tions in Ger­many, but they are not usu­al­ly locat­ed direct­ly on the road or on hik­ing trails.

The per­fo­rat­ed stone is a mine field bound­ary stone, also known as a mark­er stone, because it marks the “Markschei­de” and was set by a “Markschei­der” (sur­vey­or in the mine). The inscrip­tion reads: 

Alhi­er turn the king Car­ler 6 mea­sures on the main course heir down it was

• Joachim Chris­t­ian Behr V.O.B.M.
• Georg Fritrich Gless­ner U.B.M.
• Georg Niclaus Mers­mann GE. W. 

The best start­ing point is from the small set­tle­ment of Fes­ten­burg to the Lochstein. Fes­ten­burg can be reached via the coun­try road from Schu­len­berg to Clausthal-Zellerfeld. 

From the rus­tic “Grüne Tanne” inn, the hik­ing trail begins in the direc­tion of Bock­swiese, which first cross­es the Unter­er Schalk­er Graben and con­tin­ues uphill to the Ober­er Schalk­er Graben. There you fol­low the ditch path to the left to the Lochstein. 

If you want to con­tin­ue the hike to the Schalk­er Turm HWN 125, walk back a lit­tle and then fol­low the steeply ascend­ing path towards Schalke.