Długi Kierz: Landscape, Trails and History

Długi Kierz offers several thematic perspectives to help you plan your trip: different landscape designations, a marked hiking trail, an unmarked driving route, and the history of brickmaking and strawberry cultivation. The route descriptions differ in type, while the historical themes range from a brickworks that operated until the 1980s to an origin story dating back to the early 1920s. When choosing a destination, you can weigh up whether landscape, outdoor activity or local history matters most to you.

Landscape and protected areas

The northern and southeastern parts of the Długi Kierz area lie within the Kaszubski Landscape Park; the rest of the area is in the park’s buffer zone. In the eastern part of Długi Kierz, near the boundary with Chmielno municipality, there is also part of the Doliny Łeby w KPK natural and landscape protection complex. These designations apply to different parts of the area. So if you want to understand the landscape designations, it is worth considering the park area, the buffer zone and the eastern complex separately.

Trail sections and landscape

On the way to Długi Kierz, a marked trail runs for about 700 metres along a paved road, climbing gently before turning north onto a dirt track. The trail section beyond Długi Kierz passes through fields, small patches of woodland and scattered farmsteads. When planning, both the surface and direction of the climb, as well as the landscape along the route, are relevant. The roughly 700 metres refers to the paved section.

In the vicinity of Długi Kierz, the marked Wzgórz Szymbarskich Trail crosses several times the barely discernible trackbed of a former industrial railway used to transport stone. The trackbed points to a different aspect of the area than the descriptions of the trail surface and landscape: the railway’s former use for transporting stone.

Unmarked driving route

Established in 2024, the unmarked Szlak Truskawek Kaszubskich driving route runs along a secondary section from Miechucino through Długi Kierz to Wygoda Łączyńska. As the route is not signposted, you should check its course before setting out. It differs from the marked hiking trail in both mode of travel and navigation. The two descriptions address different planning questions: one covers driving along a secondary section, the other the route on foot.

The brickworks in local history

The brickworks in Długi Kierz operated throughout the interwar period and after the Second World War, until the 1980s. It employed several dozen people and was, for a time, the largest industrial enterprise in the area of today’s Sierakowice municipality. The town’s industrial history therefore extends beyond local employment: for a time, the brickworks also held special industrial significance for the area of today’s municipality.

A strawberry story from the 1920s

According to the most commonly cited origin story, Helena Gruchałowa, a housewife from the village of Długi Kierz, popularised strawberry cultivation in the early 1920s. She moved a few neglected plants from a neighbour’s garden into her own, initially believing them to be wild strawberries. It later turned out that they were strawberries; after a few years, they produced fine, sizeable fruit. The strawberry story offers a different perspective from the histories of the brickworks and the railway: it centres on one person and garden cultivation, rather than an industrial enterprise or stone transport.

Discover more destinations: Borzestowo, Borzestowska Huta, Ręboszewo, Chmielno, Miszewko, Kaliska, Kielpino K Kartuz, Nowa Sikorska Huta

Return to the main travel overview: Karthaus.