It is difficult to believe that in the 16th century Veliš was viewed as one of the strongest castles in Bohemia. Today, little more than a couple of crumbling walls remain, high up on the volcanic basalt cliffs. The only truly noticeable construction is the massive brick trigonometry point built on top of the hill in 1942.

Originally settled in neolithic times, Veliš hill is the remnants of a volcanic basalt intrusion that occurred during the tertiary geological period (2 to 66 million years ago). Construction of the medieval castle on the basalt outcrop probably began at the end of the 13th century, as a royal castle. It was enlarged and reconstructed several times over the following three centuries, and changed ownership several times due to the turbulent political situation in those centuries.

After the end of the 30 Years war in the 17th century, Veliš was one of many castles to be completely dismantled. Over the following 200 years the site became a quarry for high quality basalt rock. Today, the deep scars left by the quarrying make the site difficult to explore fully, but the (steep and often slippery) path to the trig point is rewarded with fine views over Jičín, Český ráj and to the mountain ranges to the north. Click for more information (in Czech) .