Hiking trail: Around Bartne
Practical information:
Bartne, car park at the volunteer fire station.
Access to Bartne from Gorlice on provincial road no. 977, from which we turn left after about 10 km following the signpost to Bartne. From here, it’s still 9 km to the ‘centre’ of the village, where you can park comfortably at the back of the volunteer fire station.
Approximately 5 hours 45 minutes
The trail, like many others in Beskid Niski, requires no special physical preparation. Only the ascent to Magurycz Mały can be tiring.
NOTE: The hike can be part of the car tour In the Footsteps of the Lemkos.
The hike can be shortened to about 3 hours by turning in Banica to the blue trail, leading straight back to Bartne, or extended by about 2 hours 15 minutes by ascending from the Majdan Pass to Magura Wątkowska and visiting the Kornuty Nature Reserve.
It takes about 5 hours 30 minutes to complete the option Bartne – Banica – PTTK shelter in Bartne – Majdan Pass – Magura Wątkowska – Pod Kornutami – Bartne.
Many sections of the trail run through open countryside, so if you’re hiking on a sunny day, it’s advisable to take care to cover your head and apply sun cream.
On the slopes of Magurycz Mały
Although the name Bartne can be associated with bee-keeping (from the Polish word barć, i.e. beehive), the village is said to have been founded by stonemasons from the nearby Jasionka who didn’t want to constantly wander to the quarries in Magurycz and Kornuty. Another theory is that the name Bartne could be derived from the word bór (woodland). The village was famous for its stone masonry, with querns and mill wheels, grave crosses and chapels being made in local workshops.
In 1896, a meteorological observation station was established in the village, run by the village teacher Iwan Bohaczyk, who recorded not only the results of measurements and observations, but also the most important events in the life of the community.
In June 1947, almost all the inhabitants of Bartne were displaced as part of Operation Vistula. Polish settlers from the Biecz area occupied some of the farms, and the uninhabited ones were demolished and sold. As a result, the current development of the village is only about 30% of that before the war. However, it’s still about 5 kilometres from the lower to the upper end of Bartne.
We begin the hike by retracing our steps without a trail along the road we came from. On the right, we’ll pass the former Greek Catholic Church of Sts Kosma and Damian, now a branch of the Gorlice Museum. The exhibition includes stone masonry tools, archive photographs and local stoneware, including grinding stones, querns, millstones and crosses. Close to the temple is the first World War I cemetery on our route. It’s a reminder of the fierce fighting that took place in the village during the Gorlice Offensive in 1915. The bodies of fallen soldiers from both sides of the conflict were moved in 1916 to a cemetery created especially for them.
After about 10 minutes, turn left, enter the yellow trail and cross the stream.
Please note: At higher water levels, passage may be difficult.
For about 45 minutes, we ascend strenuously to the ridge of Magurycz Mały. The ascent then eases until we finally start to descend to Banica, a royal village first mentioned in 1629. Today, it’s just a few houses scattered over a vast area. We arrive here after about 1 hour 30 minutes of walking.
Crossing the tarmac road, we meet the blue trail mentioned in the introduction. If you choose it, after about 1 hour, you’ll reach the PTTK shelter in Bartne, and from there, in about 1 hour 30 minutes, you’ll reach the starting point. From the road that the trail follows, a nature trail diverges to the left to the quarry at Magurycz Duży. It takes about 15 minutes from the trail to get there.
Between Banica and Wołowiec
Cross the road and continue following the yellow signs. After a few dozen metres, the trail leaves the wide track and follows a barely visible path winding along the steep bank of the stream, at times entering fields on the right. After a few moments, we emerge into a meadow (with a World War I cemetery visible on the hill on the right). Its owners ask that, keeping to the trail, you ascend to the cemetery via a path that starts near the Gościniec Banica agritourism homestead (about 10 minutes from where you cross the road). After passing through its grounds, turn left and continue to follow the ‘main’ route without deviating onto side roads (they lead onto private properties). After a few minutes, the trail enters a large meadow and leads you diagonally across it (slightly to the left) along a slightly visible path. We enter the forest and now hike along the forest road along the stream for about 30 minutes.
Note: In many places, the shore is steep, and when walking with children, it’s a good idea to guide them to the other side so that a moment’s inattention doesn’t end in a fall into the water.
After about 50 minutes, after passing two bridges located close to each other, the trail unexpectedly turns left and, with a short, somewhat strenuous ascent, brings you onto a wide forest road, which soon begins to lead down to a place called Pod Ochabiską (about 1 hour from Banica). Here, the red trail from Regietów comes in from the right, with which we’ll hike to Wołowiec for about 15 minutes.
The yellow trail then turns right to Radocyna, and our route follows the red signs to the left towards Bartne.
Before heading to our destination, however, it’s worthwhile to follow the yellow trail for about 300 metres to the small, charming Orthodox Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Wołowiec. Along the way, you’ll meet two historic wayside crosses – a cast-iron one (on the left) and a stone one (on the right, opposite the church). Today, there are few houses in the village, so it’s hard to believe that before World War II, as many as 180 farms were active with about 700 people living here.
Returning to Bartne
Having returned to the point where the trails split, follow the tarmac road along the red signs northwards. From time to time, we come across roadside crosses or only remnant pedestals documenting the former urban layout of the village. After passing the bridge over the stream (about 15 minutes from the trail junction, 1 kilometre), turn right at a not well-marked point and walk between loosely scattered houses. After another 15 minutes, we turn right again and begin a short but rather intense ascent, which gets difficult especially after the last house, where a narrow path takes us through former farmland, now heavily overgrown.
About an hour after leaving Wołowiec, the ascent eases, and in a moment, the descent to the Przełęcz pod Mareszka pass begins, where we arrive after about 10 minutes. The blue trail that we met earlier in Banica runs through here. We hike along it for about a quarter of an hour, admiring the view of Bartne on the left (right in front of the buildings, there’s a bench where you can rest and enjoy the panorama: on the left the slopes of Magurycz Wielki, straight ahead in the Bartne valley, on the right the Magura Wątkowska massif). At the last houses of the village, the trails split, with the blue one turning right. In 5 minutes, you can walk to the PTTK shelter in Bartne.
Note: Older maps indicate that the red trail runs straight ahead. In fact, it turns left and follows a tarmac road down the valley. If you’re very tired or if the weather is unfavourable, you can give up on reaching the Majdan Pass and, without following the trail, walk all the way down to the starting point. This will shorten the hike by about an hour.
If you want to go the full route, or if you plan to ascend Magura Wątkowska, turn right after the red signs at a large stone cross (about 15 minutes from the shelter, along a steep section of the trail) and begin to regain the altitude you lost going down the tarmac road. The reward for the effort will be sweeping views of Magurycz (behind) and Magura Wątkowska (in front). After 15 minutes from leaving the road, we turn left into the forest, and after another quarter of an hour, we reach the Majdan Pass.
At this point, we have to decide on the route for the rest of the hike: a quick descent to the car park or a two-hour hike through Magura Wątkowska and Kornuty.
Those who still feel up to more than 2 hours of hiking can continue along the red trail to reach Magura Wątkowska in about 40 minutes, from where the green trail will take us to Pod Kornutami (about 1 hour 30 minutes from the pass), from where the yellow signs lead to Bartne Bród, the place where we entered the trail in the morning. From here, it’s another 10 minutes to hike up the valley to the morning start point.
Choosing the shorter variant, we follow the yellow signs along a comfortable forest road towards Bartne (this isn’t the same trail we used in the morning; this one leads from the centre of Bartne to Świątkowa Wielka and then to Krempna). You’ll reach the car park after about 45 minutes, on the way passing a place where you can make a bonfire, using the wood prepared by the forestry district workers, or simply rest.
Opposite the fire station, at the back of which we parked, is the newer, active Orthodox Church of Saints Kosma and Damian. Outside around the church are three Orthodox crosses and a statue of Our Lady of the Rosary Immaculately Conceived. This is the end of the hike in the beautiful, peaceful surroundings of Bartne, and it’s time to go back.
