Buynovsko Gorge

Worth a detour

The longest gorge in Bulgaria, running from Buynovo village down to the Teshel dam, cut through marble by the Buynovska river. A single-lane road follows it the whole way and is kept open through the winter. The walls close in until, at Wolf's Leap, they nearly meet overhead. Yagodinska cave opens off it about four kilometres up. Drive it slowly: there are passing places, but not many.

Story

Background

Sixteen kilometres is a long gorge by European standards, and this one earns the length by dropping steadily — 1,307 metres at Buynovo down to 876 at the Teshel dam — through Proterozoic marble the Buynovska river has been sawing at for a very long time. The first seven or eight kilometres are relatively open. Below the turning for Yagodina it narrows sharply, and at the point called Vulchi Skok, the Wolf's Leap, the two walls come close enough that the story in the name is at least geometrically plausible.

There is no footpath along its length. The road is the route — single-track municipal asphalt, maintained year round, and the only way between Buynovo and the Devin road. That makes the gorge a driving or cycling experience rather than a walking one, which is unusual and slightly frustrating, since the best parts are the places with nowhere to stop.

Two caves open off the right bank. Yagodinska, about four kilometres up from the lower end, is the show cave with the guided tours. Imamova Dupka, higher on the same side, is undeveloped. Combine it with Trigrad, which runs parallel one valley to the east and is deeper and shorter; the two together make a reasonable day out of Devin or Smolyan.