Fingalshöhle Sandstone Quarry

If you come from Obernzenn in the direction of Sontheim on the hill to the left into the so-called "Panzerstraße" and after another 200 meters follow a narrow path into the forest, you will look in vain for a real cave. There is an abandoned sandstone quarry that tells an interesting story.The dark red reed sandstone of the quarry has provided fragments for foundations and half-timbering, ashlars for walls, door and gate posts, window frames and much more over centuries, well into the Aisch Valley.There are inscriptions in the sandstone of the Fingals Cave. Names of the Seckendorff, Guttenberg, Truchseß and others with dates from the last decades of the 18th and the first of the 19th century. Why? With the approaching period of romanticism, a sentimental turn to nature developed, for which one had hardly anything in mind before. People liked to move out to an idyllic place to go out into the country. For this, the Obernzenner castle residents and their guests were offered the romantic quarry area under the canopy of oaks, lime trees and beeches. As a memento, the name and year were engraved on the smoothed rock walls.Two French inscriptions fall out of the box. They refer to the American War of Independence 1776-83 and the French Period 1806-10. The memorial inscription for Hauptmann von Erckert was probably arranged by Adam Erckert, who was in the service of the Obernzenner Seckendorff at this time. Of course, the language of the rulers and the educated circles of the time, French, was chosen for the inscription.(Source: Heimatbuch “Leben in Obernzenn and its districts once and now” and “The Fingals Cave in Sontheimer Holz” - a contribution by the Federal Nature Conservation Association, local group Bad Windsheim, on local history)

The Fingals Cave is an abandoned sandstone quarry near Obernzenn.
The red reed sandstone from the quarry was used for numerous buildings right into the Aisch valley. Among other things, the city fortifications of Bad Windsheim were built from this stone.
After sandstone was no longer mined at this point, the cut in the terrain served as a hiding place for the population during the Thirty Years' War and the Napoleonic campaigns, or as a camp for the military. In addition, the wildly romantic place developed into a popular excursion destination for 18th and 19th century society, especially for the residents of the Obernzenner castles and their guests. Numerous inscriptions scratched into the stone walls, which are up to five meters high, are reminiscent of former visitors and events.
In addition to the German-language inscriptions, there are also some in French. One of them refers to the American War of Independence in the years 1776 to 1783. The commemorative inscription for Captain von Erckert, who fell in America in 1777, is probably by Adam Erckert. Captain von Erckert led a company of the subsidy troops of Margrave Alexander von Ansbach. The inscription of a French gunner from 1806, on the other hand, was created when Obernzenn was the Imperial French headquarters for several months.