Lohagad: Unveiling the Mighty Iron Fort of Maharashtra

Lonavala is one of the well-known hill station for Tiger point, Bhushi dam and waterfalls. It’s a weekend Adda for the people around Mumbai and Pune to chill and relax. However, Lonavala is also famous for some of its historical forts. In this blog we are going to spread some light on the Strong Iron fort of Maharashtra.

How to Reach:

By Road:

• From Mumbai it is 110 kms.
• From Pune its 64.4 kms.

Best Time to Visit:

Best time to visit is from July to April, this period.

About Lohagad Fort:

Lohagad fort is a hill fort situated near Lonavala hill station in Pune district. The name Lohagad means “Iron Fort”. Lohagad has was occupied by many dynasties over the time period. The fort elevation is 3,389 ft (1,033 m) from sea level. This fort was captured by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in 1648 AD. In the treaty of Purandar this fort was surrendered to the mughals in 1665 AD. However this fort was recaptured by Shivaji Maharaj in 1670 AD and was used to keep his treasury.

Trek Details:

Our journey began early morning around 7 o’clock from Panvel. This time instead of travelling by car we chose to travel by bike. We took old Mumbai Pune highway as two wheelers are restricted on expressway. The old highway road is well maintained. It takes around 1 -1:30 hrs to reach Lonavala by bike with a decent speed. The fort is bit far from the Lonavala city. To reach the base village try to follow the google map. The road towards the base village is bit rough and narrow and is also full of twists and turns. People mostly visit this place during monsoon and the roads being narrow there is a lot of traffic jam and the fort is overcrowded. So to enjoy the scenic view and completely explore the fort try to visit it during week days and avoid visiting it during weekends. We visited this place around mid-February and it was the best time to explore this place as it was less crowded.

You can park your bike at the base village.  You can reach the top of the fort by steps and there are around 350 steps from the base. You can clearly see the difference in the step size. These steps were built strategically, so that they would cause obstacle for the enemy while attacking. While climbing you can see that locals sell fruits, sweet corn, onion fritter, lemonade, butter milk, etc. to the people visiting the fort. Beware of monkeys, they try to steal food. On the way to the top you will come across four large gates. 

First is the Ganesh Darwaaja, second is the Narayan Darwaaja, third is the Hanuman Darwaaja and forth is Maha Darwaaja. There are two godowns which were used for grain storage purpose between Narayan Darwaaja (2^nd door) and Hanuman Darwaaja (3^rd door). The overall condition of the fort is really good.

Maha Darwaaja is the fort door .i.e. the main door to the fort. During monsoon the top of the fort is covered with mist and clouds. Being covered with wet green moss the trail is bit slippery.  After entering it we came across a Dargah. A little further we came across “Laxmi Kothi” which has many rooms and front of this place there are placed two cannons. Please do not touch or sit on these cannon and it’s a humble request to all. To the south side of the fort there are some caves. You can have a clear view of Visapur fort from the top of lohagad fort. 

Moving further to the western side of the fort, we came across to vinchu kata. Vinchu Kata means the Scorpion Sting. While we were resting at the bastion of vichu katta and enjoying our snacks, a group of monkeys sneaked from behind and they were after our snacks. I requested my friend to lend them some snacks so that we can escape, however my friend refused to share the snacks and we tried to get out of that place. During this escape I forgot my helmet on the ground and one of the monkeys was besides it. I was bit scared as I had heard and seen on TV that monkeys getting violent and biting and scratching faces. I took and deep breath and gathered some courage and slowly moved towards my helmet, I ignored the monkey and kept my eyes on my helmet. The moment I touched my helmet, in a mere seconds I pulled it up and wore it on my head. This scared off the monkey which was besides the helmet and it was our best chance to escape from this situation. These monkeys followed us but seeing the crowd they stopped and also some dogs also came running and started barking on them. This scared of the monkeys.

At the fort there is a Mahadev Temple and adjacent to it is a water tank. This tank is full of water and there are steps to descend it. There are few water tanks, and one with natural spring containing fresh water which can be used to quench our thirst. It takes around 3-4 hrs to completely explore the whole fort. This fort is well preserved and the fortification bastion is still standing strong.

When we descended the fort we had our lunch at the base village. You will get both veg and non veg food at a reasonable rate. We had a chicken thali and the food was really awesome. After lunch while heading back home we took a halt at the Mapro food which was recently built in Lonavala. There is ample of paring space and they have a big garden with fountain. Here you can spend some time, have some great clicks for your social media handles.  There we had some strawberry cream and virgin mojito.

This place is good for solo as well as group trek, but I will prefer you to visit this place with solo or couple. As per my experience, when we had visited this place, it was less crowd and we were able to explore and click some good pictures at the main points.

Trek difficulty is medium and the costing of the whole trek was around 1200 INR for two.

Note: 

Do not litter while trekking and also see if anyone is doing so please request them not to litter. Do not throw wrappers or plastic, kindly carry it in down your backpack and throw it in dustbin.

Things to carry:

• 2-3 liter Water 
• Wear full pants and full sleeves t-shirts
• Wear Trekking shoes as they provide a good grip
• Cap / Sun cream / Glares
• Dry fruits / Energy bars / Dry snacks (Glucos Biscuits)
• Glucon-D / Tang
• Napkin
• ID proof