Eckbach Mill Path

Eckbach Mill Path Eckbach-Mühlenwanderweg
Wooden signpost with logo and name
Length	23 km
Location	Leiningerland (Palatinate, Rhineland-Palatinate)
Trailheads	Hertlingshausen 49°29′47.2″N 8°0′52.5″E / 49.496444°N 8.014583°E / 49.496444; 8.014583 (Eckbach Mill Path (start)) Dirmstein 49°33′34.5″N 8°14′43″E / 49.559583°N 8.24528°E / 49.559583; 8.24528 (Eckbach Mill Path (end))
Use	Hiking
Elevation change	200 m
Highest point	308 m
Lowest point	108 m
Difficulty	easy
Season	all-year round
Waymark	wooden signposts with the logo
Sights	23 historic mills, mill museum, many other structural monuments

The Eckbach Mill Path (German: Eckbach-Mühlenwanderweg) is a footpath in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It is 23 kilometres long and runs gently downhill along the Eckbach river through the Leiningerland in the northeast of the Palatinate region.^[1]

The trail runs from west to east/northeast through the collective municipalities of Hettenleidelheim and Grünstadt-Land. It links nine villages and 23 of the original 35 water mills, running from the Palatinate Forest through the vineyards along the German Wine Road to the edge of the Upper Rhine Plain. The height difference between the start and end points (Hertlingshausen 308 metres, Dirmstein 108 metres) is 200 metres, the cumulative gain and loss over the generally gently descending route is only 250 metres, hence its difficulty is assessed as easy.

The route, which is accessible all year round, is marked by wooden signposts, made and maintained by voluntary workers. They bear the mill logo and the name Eckbach-Mühlenwanderweg. The logo depicts a house and waterwheel above a wavy line and was designed by Cosmas Kösters from Kirchheim in a school competition. The wavy line symbolizes the Eckbach, the stylized house with a water wheel represents a mill.

The path was created as a tourist attraction initiative of mill researcher, Wolfgang Niederhöfer, from Kleinkarlbach. On 12 October 1997 it was inaugurated by the minister president of Rhineland-Palatinate, Kurt Beck, in Großkarlbach, the village with the most surviving mills (six of seven). The suggestion made at the time to make the Großkarlbacher village mills a cultural monument and create the Leiningerland Mill Museum (Mühlenmuseum Leiningerland) was achieved in 2007.

Originally the route began by the Eckbachweiher pond and was only 19 kilometres long,^[2] but in 2000 it was extended by 4 kilometres upstream to the source of the Eckbach in Hertlingshausen.^[1]

• 
  Rock mill in Neuleiningen-Tal
• 
  Village mills in Großkarlbach
• 
  Eastern end of the route: The Spormühle in Dirmstein

1. Hertlingshausen^{[A 1]}
2. Altleiningen^{[A 2]}
3. Neuleiningen-Tal^{[A 3]}
   1. Obermühle ("Upper Mill")
   2. Felsenmühle^{[A 4]} ("Rock Mill")
4. Kleinkarlbach
   3. Walkmühle ("Waulk Mill")
   4. Wiesenmühle ("Pastureland Mill")
   5. Bann- and Backmühle
   6. Strohmühle ("Straw Mill")
   7. Schleifmühle ("Grinding Mill")
   8. Langmühle ("Long Mill")
5. Kirchheim an der Weinstraße
   9. Kandelmühle or Oligmühle
   10. Eselsmühle ("Donkey Mill")
   11. Kochsche Mühle (locally known as the Gräfliche Leininger Mühle, "Leiningen Comital Mill")
6. Bissersheim
   12. Bruchmühle
   13. Haldmühle ("Mill in the Hollow")
   14. Bergmühle ("Hill Mill")
7. Großkarlbach
   15. Mühle am Weiher ("Mill by the Pond")
   16. Schlossmühle^{[A 5]}
   17. Rheinmühle ("Rhine Mill")
   18. Village mills^{[A 6]}
   19. Pappelmühle ("Poplar Mill")
   20. Heckmühle
8. Laumersheim
   21. Weidenmühle ("Meadow Mill")
   22. Hornungsmühle
9. Dirmstein^{[A 7]}
   23. Spormühle^{[A 8]}

Footnotes to the list:

• Verbandsgemeinde Grünstadt-Land; Wolfgang Niederhöfer, eds. (1997), Einweihung des Mühlenwanderweges am 12.10.1997 : Festschrift (in German), Grünstadt und Kleinkarlbach{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Verbandsgemeinde Hettenleidelheim, ed. (2001), Das Wandern ist des Müllers Lust... auf dem Rad-, Kneipp- und Eckbach-Mühlenwanderweg (in German), Hettenleidelheim{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• Description
• Map (pdf; 306 kB)
• Pfälzer Festgedicht zur Eröffnung 1997