Ackeburg, castle

Ackeburg is a castle ruin perched on a hilltop above the Selke River in the Harz region. What remains visible are earthen ramparts, ditches, and defensive structures that reveal the layout and scale of the fortress.

Ackeburg was first recorded in 1216 as the seat of the castellans of the counts of Falkenstein, held by the lords of Ackeburg. The castle and the nearby village of Akkeburg, of which nothing survives, were abandoned or destroyed from 1400 onward.

The castle site is reached on woodland paths from Meisdorf, for example via the Meisdorfer Trift past the Eckartsberg and Wilhelmsberg hills and finally up the Lumpenstieg trail. About 100 m south-southeast of the ruins lies the Selkesicht viewpoint with a picnic site, checkpoint no. 204 of the Harzer Wandernadel. The Lumpenstieg drops steeply east of it to the inn Zum Falken in the Selke valley, where it meets the Selketalstieg and the E11 long-distance path.

About 100 metres south-southeast of the castle site stands the Selkesicht viewpoint, checkpoint no. 204 of the Harzer Wandernadel stamp system, with a picnic site. It sits roughly 125 metres above the Selke, which flows beneath the Akkeburg Bridge at about 205 metres, and looks across the valley to Falkenstein Castle.