Burgstein, Rock formation in the Altmühltal Nature Park near Dollnstein, Bavaria, Germany

Burgstein is a roughly 45-metre-high rock of Jurassic platform limestone and sponge reefs at the northern edge of the Upper Altmühl valley near Dollnstein, opposite the Bubenrother Mühle. Its harder banks resisted erosion, and the Ice Age Ur-Donau cut them free as a steeply rising crag.

The limestone of the Burgstein formed around 135 to 154 million years ago on a shallow subtropical shelf sea; the harder reef and platform beds resisted pressure and were later exposed by erosion. About 5 million years ago the Ur-Donau began cutting into the rock, and roughly 150,000 years ago, during the Riß glaciation, it shifted its course south into today's Schuttertal, leaving the 45-metre rock standing. The flattened area near the summit cross was a sacrificial site of the Urnfield period, recorded as a Bodendenkmal (D-1-7132-0138).

The name Burgstein refers to the rock itself, not a castle. Ludwig Bechstein recorded the legend "Wichtlein an der Altmühl" about the Schlaufloch cave in the rock near the Bubenrother Mühle. The flattened area by the summit cross was a Urnfield-period sacrificial site, protected as a Bodendenkmal (D-1-7132-0138).

The rock stands on the northern rim of the Upper Altmühl valley opposite the Bubenrother Mühle, in the Altmühltal Nature Park; the climbing routes, graded III to IX with 26 between VI and VIII, are reached on foot and rockfall makes helmets advisable. The summit plateau near the cross is a protected archaeological site, and the surrounding dry slopes of the 62-hectare nature reserve should be kept to paths.

The flattened area near the summit cross was a sacrificial site in the Urnfield period, now recorded as a Bavarian ground monument (D-1-7132-0138). The rock is also a geotope of the Bavarian Environment Agency, number 176R006, awarded the seal "Bavaria's most beautiful geotopes".