Vraní skála
Viewpoint · Czechia
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Four quartz-rock towers over twenty metres tall rise from the ridge above Svatá, the largest such formation in the whole northwestern Barrandien and the highest point for miles around, worth a short detour off the Křivoklátsko lanes. They are built of buližník, a dense silica rock veined with ancient quartz, while the surrounding slopes are sandstone, shale and volcanic rock from the Ordovician. First protected in 1948 over just 2.6 hectares, the reserve was re-declared in 1997 and now spans nearly 21 hectares of oak-hornbeam and beech forest, much of it since replanted with spruce, pine and larch. It shelters more than fifty spider species, the fire salamander and smooth snake, a critically endangered lichen (Usnea scabrata), and the swallowtail and iris butterflies. A yellow-marked trail climbs to a summit lookout with viewing platforms, though climbing the rock itself has been banned since 2003.
The protected ridge runs for about two kilometres, climbing from 445 metres to 535 at the crest where the four towers stand. Underneath the canopy, hazel, hawthorn, red elderberry and hornbeam make up the shrub layer. Botanists have also logged the moss Dicranoweisia cirrata among the rarer finds. The spider list includes Clubiona corticalis, which hunts under bark, and a crab spider of the genus Xysticus that prefers open, forest-steppe ground over closed woodland.
nature reserverock formationwildlifeviewpoint