Sometimes plans don’t go as expected and our visit to Devils Wall was one of those days.
When we drive along the motorway from Skopje to Kocani we see high on a mountain, nearby Sveti Nikole, some enormous Wind Turbines rising above the landscape. We are always intrigued to see that although they must be on a very windy part the sails are not always turning. Anyway, this really had nothing to do with Devils Wall, or did it?
We had looked up information about Devils Wall, it was vague, the coordinates were vague, the folklore and legends surrounding the Wall were even vaguer, but on an overcast Sunday we decided it would be a good day for a walk in the mountains and we could go explore!
Ãccording to the guide book – the only place I found anything like a normal description of where to go – its very straightforward:
The southern junction for Bogoslovec is located on the A3, approximately 2 km west of the A4 junction leading to Sveti Nikole. After traveling 4 km on this route, you'll reach Bogoslovec. From there, turn onto a dirt track and head towards the hill Sveti Jovanski.
One wonders if the authors of the guidebook had actually visited this place.
This was at the first junction before we had ‘turned onto a dirt track’.
We followed this road for about 7 km, driving at approximately 10 km per hour. Along the way, we passed a few deserted houses and some farms. Despite chickens roaming around, fresh hay bales in the barns, and tractors parked up, the farms appeared desolate and empty. We also saw some very old houses in various states of disrepair, alongside a few new builds. It seemed that people were constructing weekend houses, which is common in North Macedonia, as many seek to escape the heat of the towns and villages. Nearby, Mount Ponikva in Kocani is rapidly being developed for locals who want to retreat to cooler areas during the summer.
The roads did not improve, in some places I had to get out and just look to see if the road was passable. We could see a lot of tyre tracks and could see that the roads were obviously in use so we continued upwards.
According to google maps we had reached our destination. We couldn’t see any sign of Devils Wall but decided to go and walk around, we were then totally distracted because it turned out that we were actually on the mountain next to the Wind Turbines that we see on the motorway. From where we were standing you could see the service road to them and how they were positioned, it made us realise how high up we actually were!
We climbed up part of the mountain but we couldn’t find anything that remotely represented the wall so we walked around and took some photos of the area and just generally stared in awe at the surroundings.
Visiting these unknown, undocumented places feels a bit eerie, almost like we’re doing something we shouldn’t. There’s always that anticipation that someone might suddenly show up and question what we’re up to! It adds a sense of adventure, reminiscent of the Famous Five escapades from the Enid Blyton books I loved as a child—exciting and full of suspense.
Finally, feeling quite disappointed we headed back down the mountain, we passed a few cars coming towards us, the occupants looked expectantly as us but no-one stopped and questioned what we were doing. Also, I was going to say you need quite a decent car to negotiate these roads but after seeing the cars the locals were tearing up the mountain in I will refrain from commenting.
On the way back down we did take a short cut! Some of the tracks were not on google maps but looked well driven and cut off a large part of the journey.
To lift our spirits, we decided to stop for lunch. Since we were near one of our favourite restaurants, we thought a small detour would be worth it. Before the motorway from Skopje to Kocani was completed, we used to drive around the mountains—a journey that took well over an hour, compared to the now 45-minute drive from the airport. The trip was absolutely fantastic! The scenery along the way was breathtaking, making you fall in love with North Macedonia before even stepping out of the car. Along this route is the Chateau Sopot Winery and restaurant, where we used to stop for lunch or dinner, because its it’s now not on our direct route we rarely go there so we saw this as a great opportunity to visit again.
We drove under the motorway and up towards the vineyards where a cool glass of wine and perfectly cooked Trout awaited us.
All was not lost.
P.S Later on we studied the maps to see if we could find how to get to Devils Wall. We think we have found it. At some point in the journey we passed a small church and it looks like if you walk past this church and over the mountain you get to Devils Wall.
To be continued....
Wanderings in North Macedonia 