Alpujarra walks
Number Eight: Four hamlets
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A nice and easy route linking four pretty white hamlets in La Tahá valley: Fondales, Mecinilla, Mecina and Ferreirola, then back to Fondales. Each village has a drinking water fountain where you can refill your bottle and Mecina has a choice of bar-restaurants.
La Tahá valley with Fondales in the distance
Four hamlets circular walk
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
It's a circular walk so if you're driving, you can park and start in any of the hamlets.
The route is gentle enough to do even on a hot day. Although it leads you through villages and along a country road, they are beautifully quiet and you will see few people and fewer cars.
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
It's a circular walk so if you're driving, you can park and start in any of the hamlets.
The route is gentle enough to do even on a hot day. Although it leads you through villages and along a country road, they are beautifully quiet and you will see few people and fewer cars.
This itinerary goes clockwise from Fondales, a mountain village with a climate so mild they grow oranges there.
We start here in order to get the only uphill section out of the way first and leave the best part of the walk for the end.
In Fondales, in the small square which doubles as a parking area, take the path up from the old wash house. It soon reaches the road where you dog-leg right and immediately left to continue up again to Mecinilla. The climb will get the legs complaining a bit, but they’ll like the rest of the hike.
We start here in order to get the only uphill section out of the way first and leave the best part of the walk for the end.
In Fondales, in the small square which doubles as a parking area, take the path up from the old wash house. It soon reaches the road where you dog-leg right and immediately left to continue up again to Mecinilla. The climb will get the legs complaining a bit, but they’ll like the rest of the hike.
Dog's leg across the road between Fondales and Mecinilla
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When you reach Mecinilla, go straight up the street ahead with the old vine and turn right at the end, passing by the village fountain. Follow this village street round and out of the village.
Arriving in Mecinilla
Mecinilla fountain
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Up the street and turn right at the end
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You come out onto the same country road that goes down to Fondales. Walk straight on, past the church and the hotel, and turn right.
"Walk straight on, past the church and the hotel, and turn right."
Stay on this road to walk past Mecina village which sits, mostly hidden, above the road. Pass by Mecina’s bar-restaurants. Just past La Mora Luna is a good water fountain for a drink.
Bar-restaurante "La Mora Luna", Mecina
Continue a few minutes more to Ferreirola, where you emerge onto the church square and the road ends. Go round the church to the right. Turn left and down.
Ferreirola
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Go round the church to the right. Turn left and down.
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You’re going to the bottom of the village, so follow the natural way down. Go down steps and you will come to a junction where you can two ways: keep left to leave Ferreirola.
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Now begins the last and best part of the walk, along a path. It is just 1.5 km back to Fondales from here.
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You simply follow this path, of earth and sometimes stone, all the way, passing figs, olives and an ancient chestnut above an alberca. Little bridges cross streams and there are lovely views, both down the valley to Fondales and back to the mountains.
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Just before you reach Fondales village there is an acequia, a rusty red in colour from iron deposits in the water.
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Arriving back in Fondales at Casa del Pozo
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You enter Fondales village under the tinao of Casa del Pozo and turn right to walk up to the village square, where this walk began and now finishes.
One of the Alpujarra's nicest little round trips, don't you think? |
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