Overview
A complete circuit of the Hennesee, the reservoir on the Henne south-west of Meschede. It begins and ends at the Badebucht car park, which sits 51 m off the line.
The walk keeps to the water for most of its length — the median distance from the shore is 43 m — and then deliberately leaves it. Along the western bank the B 55 runs beside the reservoir with no space between the carriageway and the water, so instead of following the shore this line climbs onto the hillside above the road, reaching 471 m on the shoulder of the Sommerberg (470 m) before descending to the shore again. That is why 3532 m of the route — a fifth of it — lies more than 350 m from the lake it is named for, and why at its furthest the water is 637 m away. The trade is the point of the route: staying at the water here would mean 987 m on the verge of a Bundesstraße, while this line has 51 m of verge and 269 m within 25 m of a main road.
Underfoot the walk is mostly made ground: 10.7 km sealed, 4.8 km gravel and about 1.6 km of path and trail. There is 431 m of ascent, taken in short pulls rather than one climb, between 321 m and 471 m.
About 10 km of the circuit coincides with the waymarked Hennedamm Rundweg A8, and the rest of its signposted ground follows the X23 Schieferweg — 12.6 km with waymarks in total. It also shares roughly 3.6 km with the Hennedamm Rundweg A3, the shore walk already in the catalogue: a fifth of this circuit lies on A3, and two fifths of A3 on this circuit. The remaining 4.6 km cross forestry roads and paths that carry no waymarks.
A scheduled electric passenger boat calls at three landing stages on the route, so the circuit can be cut short by water instead of retraced. The stage at Xavers Ranch is reachable only on foot or by bicycle.