Lacul Roşu - Gyilkos tó

The Gyilkos tó (=Killer Lake in Hungarian) or Lacul Roşu (=Red Lake in Romanian) is situated in Romania, in the Easter Carpathians, in the Nagyhagymás / Haşmaş Mountains. It is situated at 983 m elevation, it has about 12 hectares total surface area, an average depth of 5,5 m and maximum depth of 10,5 m.

View of the lake

The lake is a natural dam-lake, which formed in 1837, due to a massive landslide, when limestone rocks and clay from the nearby Gyilkoskő (Killer stone) Peak rolled down in the valley and blocked the watercourse of a small stream, forming later a lake. Nowadays you can see the remains of the old fir trees, hundreds of tree trunks stand out all around from the water, as the calcareous and iron oxide rich water preserved the wood.

Fir tree trunks in the water

Several small streams and drift waters flow into the lake, carrying a reddish alluvium that has been deposited on the lake bed during the years and slowly bank up the lake. People try to save the lake by building dams on the small streams to filter out the alluvium.


The lake is frozen in the winter and it is covered by a massive ice-layer. During the summer its temperature can reach 22 C. In the lake there live several species of fish, like trouts and crabs.

Boating on the lake

Tourists have opportunities for boating and fishing in the lake, walk around the lake, mountaineering, as there are several tourist routes to the Cohárd / Suhard Peaks, Gyilkoskő (=Killer-stone) Peak, or even rock climbing in the nearby mountains.

Kis-Cohárd / Suhardu Mic Peak - 1352 m

The water of the lake flows into the Békás stream that leads us to one of the most spectacular places in Romania, the Békási szoros / Cheile Bicazului / Bicaz Gorges, where I will take you in my next blog.