The course of the Rhine, the wooded outermost foothills of the Jura and a winemaking tradition dating back centuries are the hallmarks of the landscape you’ll find in the north of Switzerland.

The mountain church of St. Moritz towers over Hallau – the biggest winemaking area of German-speaking Switzerland–. It seems as if it is standing guard over the valley and Klettgau’s numerous vine-covered slopes that line up around it in a wide semicircle. Formerly a popular destination for pilgrims, today the church is the starting point for extended hikes.

It is high summer and silence reigns over the vine-covered slopes. The grapes glow a deep green and the few winemakers to be seen are busy pruning their vines. One of them is Lukas Bringolf, who has been working in a winery in Hallau for three years, while also pressing his own wine.

The 24-year-old is a professional wine technologist specialising in «getting the best out of the grape and realising my ideas about what makes a good wine” – this is how he describes his passion for wine. He is also one of the young winegrowers who are keeping Hallau’s wine tradition alive. 

They can stop off at the vineyard hut (“Räbhüüsli”) that Lukas Bringolf and four other winegrowing families traditionally take turns running on summer weekends, for example. Hikers can quench their thirst in the shade of a leafy pergola and enjoy a substantial meal washed down by a drop of good wine.

Hikers have a possible destination constantly in view – the striking chain of hills coming up on the horizon – the Schaffhauser Randen.

The hills extend 500 metres above the valley, but hikers have to work hard before they can enjoy the views from their summit – a climb up dizzying trails and through vast forests. Hidden behind the thicket of trees and bushes, the Siblinger Randenturm tower and its unmistakeable architecture ​​suddenly emerge into view.

Once you’ve scaled the 99 stairs to the top, you are treated to stunning views of a picture-perfect landscape and a multi-coloured patchwork quilt of meadows and fields in which picturesque villages are nestled. Broad expanses of this area have belonged to the Regional Nature Park Schaffhausen since January 2018. 

The Rhine, the canton’s life-giving artery, is Schaffhauserland’s defining feature. You’ll catch sight of the region’s typical flatboats (“Weidlinge”) bobbing in the current as you walk along its river banks to Schaffhausen, as the historic old town looms ever closer. 

You’ll also find you are getting nearer and nearer to the thundering roar of the Rhine Falls, a spectacle of nature that is the foaming jewel in the crown of every hike through Schaffhauserland.

The route takes you from the winegrowing community of Hallau along a panorama trail and through vast forests to the Randen range of hills. You can add on a second stage from Siblinger Randenhaus restaurant to Schaffhausen. Round off the idyllic hiking experience with a visit to the historic old town with its promenades along the Rhine and then to the Rhine Falls themselves at Neuhausen.

Klettgau-Rhein Trail