Zgornji Kras and Socerb Castle

Hiking in Slovenia » Slovene Istria » Zgornji Kras and Socerb Castle

When our kids were still in kindergarten, they loved hiking around the place with the Bora wind – the meadows of Zgornji Kras, a karst plateau above Trieste with beautiful views of surrounding hills and the Adriatic Sea.

At a Glance

Difficulty: An easy stroll on gravel- and dirt roads and trails
Altitude: 440 m
Average time: 1 h
Elevation gain: 80 m
Coordinates: Start: 45.588664,13.866753
Peak: 45.601636,13.875859

Starting point Hiking map

Interactive route Download GPX file

Drive toward Socerb Castle and park at a sharp left turn (there’s plenty of space at the start of a gravel road). Follow the gravel road, take a left turn whenever you feel like it, and you’ll eventually get to the Socerb castle and back to your car.

Need more instructions? Here they are:

Start hiking on the gravel road.
Take a left turn, following the blue (biking) signs.
Leave the biking signs and turn left onto a narrower dirt trail at the next fork.
When the dirt trail reaches the next gravel road, you’ll be somewhere close to the halfway point. If you’re hiking with small kids, you might want to take a break for a short snack.
We usually turned left and followed the gravel road toward the castle; you can also go straight until you reach the plateau’s edge and the marked Alpe Adria trail.
Turn left. Follow the hiking (red) signs back to the gravel road and then onto a narrower dirt trail that brings you straight to the Socerb Castle.
You could take the asphalt road to get back to the car, but it’s much better to follow the waymarks and visit Sveta Jama – a tiny church in a cave.