Kobylańska Valley

The Kobylańska Valley is a gorge some 4 km long, lined with limestone crags, that begins at the edge of the village of Kobylany, about 20 km north-west of Kraków. In its lower part there are few trees, so the rocks are everywhere you look and the valley feels like a small canyon. It is one of the main climbing areas of the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland (the "Jura"), where many well-known Polish mountaineers first learned to climb.

Two gates and oddly named crags

The valley, occasionally called the Karniowska Valley, opens with two rock gates. The first, about 30 m wide, stands just beyond the houses of Kobylany, between Ponad Gnój Turnia and a nameless outcrop. Further up, between Mała Płyta and the much taller Żabi Koń ("Frog Horse"), lies the actual Kobylańska Gate – a narrowing about 40 m wide with grassy flats on either side. Climbers have divided the rocks into more than a dozen groups, with names such as Mnich (the Monk), Okręt (the Ship), Płetwa (the Fin), Wielka Wronia Baszta and Dwoista Turnia.

What to see along the way

• The cave shrine of Our Lady – steps cut into the eastern slope near the Kobylańska Gate lead up to it. A plaque beside it commemorates a "memorable year of the apparition of Our Lady, 1914". The shrine offers a view down the valley.
• St Anthony's Spring – right by the path in the lower valley, on the grassy flat by the gate.
• Płetwa – a lone rock needle rising from the ground just past the spot where the path crosses the stream.
• The wooded upper section, with tall crags and a rock topped by a wind-bent pine.
• Kobylańskie Źródło in the upper valley – a protected natural monument and the source of the Kobylanka stream.

Nature and curiosities

The Kobylanka disappears in places: most of the water flows through underground fissures and karst voids. Sunny rocks carry dry grassland, and in spring, before the trees come into leaf, the valley floor is covered with anemones, hollow-root corydalis, violets and lungwort. The western slope of the upper gorge holds Szafer's birch – its only site in the entire Kraków-Częstochowa Upland – and in 1952 the second Jura site of the Ojców birch was found on the eastern slopes. According to the Eagles' Nests Trail guide, Polish special forces from the "Red Berets" also trained here.

Tripto tip

The easiest start is in Kobylany: from the Bronowice Małe terminus in Kraków take bus 278 (towards Krzeszowice) to the Kobylany stop and walk along ul. Turystyczna; by car, head for the "Dolina Kobylańska" car park on ul. Kościuszki. The upper valley is easier to reach from Będkowice (bus 210). Walking the whole valley one way takes about an hour at an easy pace; a hiking trail runs along the valley floor from Kobylany via Będkowice to Paczółtowice, and a cycle route leads towards the Bolechowice Valley. After rain the path can be muddy and slippery, and below the busiest crags in the lower valley keep your distance from climbers and never walk under someone belaying. The valley is part of the Kraków Valleys Landscape Park, and the neighbouring Będkowska Valley makes a good extension to the walk.