In addition, it is part of the western section of the Protected area Little Switzerland and Veldenstein Forest, which was founded in 2001 and comprises 1,021.64 km2.

The dry grassland habitat and rare plants, particularly orchids, caused the hill, in particular its higher parts, to be designated in 1987 as the Ehrenbürg Nature Protection Area,[4] which is 1.55 km2 in area, extending a maximum of approximately 2.3 km from north to south and 1 km from east to west.

It may be roughly divided into three areas: in the south is the Rodenstein with its summit (532 m) and the Schlaifhausener Kopf (512 m), in the centre is a broad saddle and in the north is the Walberla, including the Denkmalfels (514 m) and the Geierswandkopf (523 m).

[13] The hill is also the subject of numerous legends about witches and hidden treasure, and the tale of a fabulous town which once stood at the foot of the hill, an accursed castle which stood where the chapel is now, and an evil woman who was turned to stone and became a rocky outcropping, the "steinerne Jungfrau" (stone virgin).

[2][14] The hill was a settlement site from the early Neolithic (approximately 4000 BCE) until the end of the Roman period in the 5th century CE.

In the late 14th century BCE, it became a hill fort; in the early Iron Age (approximately 550–380 BCE), under the Celtic Hallstatt and early La Tène cultures, it was a strongly fortified regional centre, with two gates and a citadel, and finds originating from Mediterranean cultures indicate far-flung trade.

After an interruption, there was then possible occupation by Germanic people[3] during the late Roman period, around 400 CE; unlike the Celtic settlement, only on the Rodenstein.

[2] Archaeological finds indicate that during the Hallstatt and La Tène periods, the hill was the site of human sacrifices, possibly including cannibalism.

[2] Some human bones, such as a woman's skeleton which was unnaturally bent and buried under boulders, appear to be sacrifices for the luck of a building; some skulls have been cut up and had holes bored in them for use as amulets; the armless and legless skeleton of a baby, and discarded fragments of human bones with cut marks, both suggest cannibalism.

Between 1989 and 1995, Björn-Uwe Abels of the Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (Bavarian State Department of Preservation) conducted extensive excavations.

The Walberla-Fest in honour of St. Walburga is the oldest spring festival in Germany;[16] pilgrimages associated with the Walberla-Kärwa are attested as early as the 9th century.

B. Koppelt described it as "a famous market ... attended by merchants from Saxony, Bayreuth, the Palatinate and Nuremberg and where every imaginable class of merchandise is offered, especially shoes.

The poet Joseph Victor von Scheffel writes in his 1863 poem Exodus Cantorum – Bambergischer Domchorknaben Sängerfahrt:Ob Vorchheim bei Kirchehrenbach Woll'n wir zu Berge steigen.

Der ist seit grauer Heidenzeit Noch allem Landvolk theuer, Schatzkind, halt Gürtel fest und Kleid,