Swiss Highlights

Summit · Bernese Alps

Schilthorn

A 2,969-metre summit reachable only by cable car, topped by a revolving restaurant, the Piz Gloria, used as a James Bond film set.

Derivative illustration produced by Swiss Highlights from a freely licensed photograph.

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Translated during an AI-assisted second-pass review — not yet validated by a native-speaking editor.

The Schilthorn rises to 2,969 metres in the Bernese Alps, above the alpine village of Mürren, in the municipality of Lauterbrunnen. No road reaches it: from the valley, access is by a chain of cable cars — a first stage links Stechelberg to Gimmelwald and then Mürren, a second runs from Mürren to Birg, a third from Birg to the summit. Another route runs from Lauterbrunnen, by cable car to Grütschalp, then by train to Mürren.

At the summit stands a revolving panoramic restaurant, the Piz Gloria, which completes a full turn in fifty-five minutes. At the end of its construction it served as the set for the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Why this place is remarkable

The Schilthorn combines a summit reachable only by a chain of three cable cars with a revolving restaurant built at its top to serve as a film set: the Piz Gloria, chosen for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, still turns full circle in fifty-five minutes, at 2,969 metres.

What to do and see

  • Ride to the summit via the chain of cable cars from Stechelberg, via Gimmelwald, Mürren then Birg.
  • Take the full turn of the revolving panoramic restaurant Piz Gloria, in fifty-five minutes.
  • Spot the set elements from the film On Her Majesty's Secret Service at the summit, at 2,969 metres.

Coming with family: what to know

  • No road leads to Mürren or to the summit: access is only by cable car, or by train to Mürren from Grütschalp.

As a couple

  • Share a moment at Piz Gloria during its full fifty-five-minute rotation.
  • Vary the ascent by going via Lauterbrunnen, the cable car to Grütschalp then the train to Mürren.
  • Take in the panorama from the summit's 2,969 metres, reachable only by the chain of three cable cars.
Before you go

No road reaches Mürren or the summit of the Schilthorn: access is only by cable car, or by train to Mürren from Grütschalp.

Location

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Related places

An aerial view of the village of Mürren, its chalets scattered across a wide grassy terrace overlooking the deep, wooded Lauterbrunnen valley, facing a range of snow-capped peaks under a sky streaked with golden clouds.

Car-free village · Bernese Alps · 4 km as the crow flies

Mürren

Overlooked by the Schilthorn (2,970 m), Mürren was one of the Alps' earliest homes of alpine skiing: the Downhill Only Club forged the discipline there, and Arnold Lunn invented the slalom in 1922. Reachable only by cable car and train.

View on the map (Bern)

The red corrugated roof of a wooden chalet fills the foreground, with a round white chimney set on it; behind, a meadow of tall grass and wildflowers slopes down toward a wooded valley where a stream, white with melted snow, winds along. In the background, a chain of rocky, glaciated peaks stands out under a blue sky with scattered clouds, in the crisp light of midsummer.

Car-free mountain village · Bern · 5 km as the crow flies

Gimmelwald

130 inhabitants in 2003, a Walser house from 1658, an access still impossible by car: Gimmelwald stands at 1,367 m between Stechelberg (867 m) and Mürren (1,650 m), at the foot of the Jungfrau-Aletsch UNESCO site.

View on the map (Bern)

At the bottom of a narrow gorge, the milky turquoise water of the Trümmelbach glides in long exposure between walls of polished limestone; mist rises from the current, and a few tufts of green moss catch the light on the overhanging rock.

Underground falls · Bernese Oberland · 6 km as the crow flies

Trümmelbach Falls

The Trümmelbach alone drains the glacier faces of the Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau: up to 20,000 litres a second in a gorge so narrow that daylight no longer reaches the upper falls.

View on the map (Bern)