Madhugiri Fort - Karnataka

Madhugiri, or also known as Maddagiri, is located around 43 km north of Tumkur town, and 107 km north-west of Bengaluru city. The monolith and the surrounding greenery of Madhugiri are the main attractions. The place has old temples of Venkataramanaswami and Malleshwara built by the Vijayanagara feudatories in the Dravidian style.

Madhugiri trek is named after the Madhugiri hill which translated to the Madhu (Honey) + Giri (Hill): Hill of the honey.

Madhugiri Fort

Madhugiri fort - Trekking:

Madhugiri fort trekking time is within 2 hours. However, the trek is little technical and steeper than most of the treks around Bangalore. Its a monolith trek and for regular trekkers would take about an hour to reach the top. It becomes slightly difficult at times when the hand-railing is not available at the steep incline. Its breezy and beautiful on the top with panoramic view of the landscape below. 

View from 100 meters

There is no entrance fee at the Madhugiri fort. So, try to start your trek as early as possible. When we started our trek around eight o’ clock (We had left Bangalore at five in the morning), we saw two guys already coming down. That means, if summited the trek, they must have begun very early.

Initially, there is a stretch of stairs to almost half of the trek. Then, you will have to hike on the plain and steep rocks. However, there are handle bars to support the climb. After half of the ride, the ascent becomes steeper and also, at some of the points, handle bars are not there but rock-cut steps are there almost throughout the hike. In the final stretch, at some points of time, rock-cut steps are not there near the fort but you can easily walk up.

There is also a big tunnel near at the starting of the trek and there were also places to keep arrows and canon fireballs at the fortified structures around the Madhugiri fort. As we trekked up, we also saw some secret and hiding places which are normally hard to discover.

Near to Madhugiri:

• Chennarayana Durga
• Siddara Betta
• Devrayana Durga