Ellerspring


The Ellerspring, at, is the highest point of the Soonwald, a part of the Hunsrück mountains in the German Central Uplands. It is situated near Winterbach in the county of Bad Kreuznach in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate

Geography

Location

The Ellerspring lies in the northwest of the county of Bad Kreuznach roughly in the centre of the Soonwald-Nahe Nature Park. It rises within the parish of Winterbach, whose village church stands some 4.6 km south-southeast of the summit. About 1 km to the northwest of the summit in the valley of the Gräfenbach, which initially flows southwest, and that of the Lametbach, which begins by heading northeast, is the boundary with the county of Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis, in which are located the villages of Argenthal, Riesweiler and Tiefenbach and Sargenroth and Mengerschied. Not far from the mountain, in the county of Bad Kreuznach, lie the villages of Spabrücken and Münchwald, Gebroth and Winterbach and Ippenschied. About 2 km south-southwest of the summit at a height of about 529 m rises the Nahe tributary of Ellerbach, after which the mountain is named. Roughly northeast of the summit is the Ödesborner Höhe and, beyond that, the Hölzenkopf. Forming a spur to the south-southeastern is the Odstein and, to the east, the Steineberg.

Natural regions

The Ellerspring belongs to the natural regional major unit group of Hunsrück, in the major unit of Soonwald and the sub-unit of Großer Soon to the eponymous natural region of Großer Soon.