Trzin - Jablje castle (Forest learning trail Onger)

Access to starting point:
From the direction of Ljubljana:
From the main road towards Domžale, we turn left at the traffic-light-controlled junction "Trzin - Mlake". Immediately after the junction, we turn right onto Ljubljanska cesta and drive towards the newer part of Trzin. Just before the road leads over the bridge over Pšata, we turn left onto the narrow road Za hribom, which leads to the old village centre of Trzin and the church of St. Florian. Just before we reach the church, on the right we notice a parking lot and before it a large sign for the Forest learning trail Onger.

From the direction of Domžale:
We leave the main road towards Ljubljana in Trzin at the traffic-light-controlled junction towards Mengeš, Kamnik, Kranj. Immediately after the junction, we turn left onto Ljubljanska cesta and drive through the newer part of Trzin. Immediately after the bridge over Pšata, we turn right onto the narrow road Za hribom, which leads to the old village centre of Trzin and the church of St. Florian. Just before we reach the church, on the right we notice a parking lot and before it a large sign for the Forest learning trail Onger.

From the direction of Mengeš:
If we do not know the area of Trzin along Mengeška cesta well, it is best if we drive along the road Mengeš - Trzin to the last traffic-light-controlled intersection before the junction onto the main road Ljubljana - Domžale. Here we turn right onto Ljubljanska cesta and drive through the newer part of Trzin. Immediately after the bridge over Pšata, we turn right onto the narrow road Za hribom, which leads to the old village centre of Trzin and the church of St. Florian. Just before we reach the church, on the right we notice a parking lot and before it a large sign for the Forest learning trail Onger.

From the centre of Trzin, we can reach the starting parking lot on foot via the footbridge over Pšata near the Trzin primary school. Unlike the other Trzin parking lots, this one is not paid nor is parking time-limited.

Path description:
At the starting parking lot, on the marked pedestrian crossing we cross the road Za hribom, turn left and immediately head to the stairs, which branch off slightly to the right. At the end of the stairs we turn left. Already after a few metres, slightly to the right new stairs branch off. Beside the second bench on these stairs (not far from the end), to the right a short but more difficult shortcut branches off. If we continue on the stairs to the end, then we turn sharply right onto the road, which steeply ascends upwards. The forest learning trail officially starts a little further along this road beside the water tank, but we leave the road already a few metres further at the first sharp left bend, where on the right we can notice the branch-off of a narrow path into the forest. From here onwards all the way to the castle we walk through the forest. Soon the aforementioned shortcut joins us from the right.

The path initially ascends quite steeply. After approx. 200 m we reach a macadam forest road, where (admittedly in the opposite direction from the official one) we join the forest learning trail, which is "marked" on some trees with plaques bearing tree names. The road continues ascending for some time onto the hill Onger (which separates the centre of Trzin from the Mlake area) and after about 500 metres reaches the highest point, after which it slowly begins to descend. On our left it is almost always possible to see the Mengeš plain through the trees. A little further on follows the point "Razgledišče", where there is also a bench, and it offers the most beautiful views over the Mengeš plain towards Domžale, Kamnik, Mengeš...

A little further from the viewpoint the macadam road suddenly ends. From the left the western branch of the learning trail joins us (which also starts at the aforementioned water tank), but we continue straight on the well-trodden path. Here and there we encounter a few more forks, but we just need to stick to the most trodden path and the direction towards the north, while almost all the time keeping the view towards the east on the Mengeš plain. The path still gently descends. When through the trees we already see the castle, a few more forks follow. We reach the castle via any of them.

From the castle we can continue the tour towards other destinations, return to Trzin along the road just below the hill, or again along the same path; when the path becomes a macadam road, we can optionally take it right along the western branch of the learning trail, which is parallel and only a few metres away from the previously described eastern one, and it brings us to the water tank in the Mlake.