Ellscheid

Ellscheid is an Ortsgemeinde – a municipality belonging to a Verbandsgemeinde, a kind of collective municipality – in the Vulkaneifel district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the Verbandsgemeinde of Daun, whose seat is in the like-named town.

Geography

Location

Ellscheid lies on the Pulvermaar (“Powder Maar”) in the middle of the Vulkaneifel, a part of the Eifel known for its volcanic history, geographical and geological features, and even ongoing activity today, including gases that sometimes well up from the earth. The Mürmes nature conservation area is a well known outing destination. The Mürmes is a wetland area between Ellscheid, Saxler and Mehren.

History

Clear signs of what might have been the first permanent settlement of the area are the Celtic barrows around Ellscheid (Starkenbruch, Rothreiser, Jungholz‚ Hügelchen). These graves come from the early Iron Age, Hallstatt times in the 7th century BC. The best known Celtic remnant, though, is the ringwall on the Steineberger Ley some 4 km away.