Treetop walkway in Hainich National Park, Thuringia, Germany

© mauritius images GmbH/Alam

Top of the trees

A treetop path allows visitors to the Hainich National Park to enjoy a bird’s eye view of an ancient native beech forest here in the German state of Thuringia. The park is part of a Unesco World Heritage site, the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, which is dotted across 18 countries - a testament to the spread of the European Beech across the continent since the end of the last Ice Age.

Here in Hainich National Park, the 1,739ft (530m) wooden walkway winds along the tops of towering trees and spirals upwards to an observation tower. Along the walk, there is information about the park's flora and fauna – thousands of animal species live in the forest, including wildcats, bats and woodpeckers.