Mountain Walking in Mallorca. Paddy Dillon

sun-starved northern Europeans for many decades. While beach holidays remain popular, more and more visitors seek the quieter pleasures of rural Mallorca, especially taking opportunities to explore the island’s most rugged mountain range, the Serra de Tramuntana.

      In the high mountains there is more shade among the evergreen oak and pines, with cooling breezes to temper the heat of the sun. Away from the bustling resorts the pace of life in the mountain villages is more sedate and relaxing. Almond and orange trees burst into blossom and vineyards yield heavy bunches of grapes. Kid goats bleat plaintively, often unseen among the undergrowth, while bongling bells alert shepherds to the location of their free-range sheep and cattle. Every so often, emerging from the forests, walkers discover the sun-scorched façades of palatial country mansions, wayside ermitas (hermitages) and little casetas (huts). In a sense, the visitor who is prepared to walk can forget everything they’ve ever heard about Mallorca, and start afresh by making new discoveries every day, around every corner.

      As walking became more and more popular over the years and guidebooks proliferated in many languages, the island authorities began to purchase some extensive rural estates, protecting them from development and marking paths and tracks for walkers. In due course they turned their attention to the creation of long-distance walking routes, which are still gradually being pieced together.

Serra de Tramuntana

      Looking towards Mallorca’s highest mountains from Puig d’Alaró (Walk 29)

      Serra de Tramuntana translates as ‘Mountains of the North’, and they form an incredibly rugged range stretching all the way along the northern flank of Mallorca. The Paratge Natural de la Serra de Tramuntana, or Nature Area of the Serra de Tramuntana, was designated in 2007, covering an area of approximately 625 square kilometres (240 square miles). In 2011 it became a World Heritage Site, due to its importance as a cultural landscape. Although the mountains are predominantly limestone, the coastline often features a complex mix of rock types. Pine forests and extensive holm oak woodlands abound, with cultivated areas featuring olive groves, citrus groves and nut groves. Terraced slopes near the towns and villages produce abundant crops, while bare, rocky mountainsides are colonised by tough plants that form dense maquis, or patchy garigue formations. These rugged mountains form the backdrop for walking in Mallorca.

      Around 90% of the Serra de Tramuntana is private property, and many regular walkers can tell tales about access problems. On the other hand, every few years extensive mountain estates come onto the market and some of these have been purchased and opened to the public. Some of the most notable acquisitions and recreational areas, from west to east, include: Finca Galatzó, Sa Coma d’en Vidal, Son Fortuny, Planícia, Son Moragues, Cúber, Binifaldó and Menut. There are plenty of places where walkers are welcome, or at least tolerated.

      The provision of the long-distance GR221 allows walkers to trek all the way through the Serra de Tramuntana. Although many stretches of the GR221 are included in this book, they do not run consecutively, nor always in the same direction. For full details of the GR221, described in its entirety as a long-distance route, see Trekking in Mallorca by Paddy Dillon, published by Cicerone.

Brief history of Mallorca

      Mallorca has been inhabited for more than 6000 years, when the earliest settlers lived in caves, hunted and kept animals, made stone tools and employed certain rituals when burying their dead. Around 4000 years ago, stone buildings and large towers, or talaiots, were constructed, suggesting highly organised societies working together for the common good, while clearly engaging in serious disputes with their neighbours.

      The Carthaginians established trading posts and often recruited local people to defend them. Most of the ports on the island had their origins around this time. The Romans invaded Mallorca in 123BC, but much of their work was later destroyed by Vandals from North Africa. After the breakup of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine general Belisarius dealt with the Vandals, and the Balearic islands were linked with what is now Tunisia. As part of the Byzantine Empire, Mallorca again became a trading post protected by military might.

      Arab raids commenced in AD707. Arab settlers profoundly influenced the development of agriculture. The legacy of these times is recalled in placenames – bini means ‘house of’, as in Binibassi and Biniaraix. In the city of Palma the Moorish arches of the Almudaina palace and the Arab baths can still be seen.

      Pine trees are common in the mountains of Mallorca

      In 1229 Jaume I of Aragon, ‘The Conqueror’, led a fleet of 150 ships and an army of 16,000 men to Mallorca. Their intention was to land at Port de Pollença, but they were prevented by storms so they sheltered in the lee of sa Dragonera and later landed at Santa Ponça. The re-conquest was completed in 1230, but this didn’t lead to peaceful times. Disputes between Jaume’s sons, passed on to their sons and heirs, led to successive invasions, but the royal line continued through Jaume II and Jaume III, the latter being killed in battle in 1349. The reign of independent kings ended, and Aragon took direct control of the island.

      Mallorca’s chequered history continued with invasions, rebellions and natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and outbreaks of cholera and bubonic plague. Watchtowers, or talaies, were built between 1550 and 1650 on high vantage points, so that invaders and pirates could be spotted in good time. In 1716 Mallorca finally lost the title of kingdom and became a province of Spain. Neighbouring islands had similarly convoluted histories, with Menorca spending the best part of the 18th century as a British possession. In the 20th century, the Catalan language was suppressed under Franco’s dictatorship, but has since flourished and is now very evident throughout Mallorca.

Mountain heritage

      Most of the mountainous terrain in Mallorca is made of limestone. The built heritage of the mountains often uses nothing more basic than roughly hewn lumps of limestone. On the lower cultivated slopes, terraces are held in place by massive drystone buttresses (marges) and watered by stone-lined channels (canaletes). Water may be stored in tanks (cisternes) or small underground reservoirs (aljubs), all built of stone.

      On the lower wooded slopes, where fuel was readily available, are large stone-lined pits which are former limekilns (forns de calç). On the highest mountainsides, larger and deeper stone-lined snow-pits (cases de neu) were used for storing snow and ice. In dense holm oak woodland there are dark, flat, circular, moss-grown remains of charcoal-burning platforms (sitges). Trekkers sometimes use these as wild-camp sites, but it is very difficult to get pegs into the hard-baked ground. Somewhere nearby will be the low remains of the circular huts of the charcoal burner (barraca de carboner). Stone-built outdoor bread ovens (forns de pa) are also likely to be spotted nearby. Drystone walls and cairns abound almost everywhere.

      Snow collecting

      The highest paths on Mallorca were built by snow collectors (nevaters). Snow was collected to make ice for use in the summer and conserved in snow-pits. These are found scattered around Puig Major, Puig de Massanella, Puig Tomir, Puig des Teix and Serra d’Alfàbia, mostly above 900m (2950ft). The pits were usually circular, oval, or occasionally rectangular, partly or wholly below ground level. When the mountains were covered with snow, groups of men went up to gather it into baskets. Flat platforms were made and cleared of vegetation, where the snow was arranged in layers and trampled down hard to pack it into ice.

      Snow used to be collected and stored in pits on the mountains

      The packed snow was put into the pit and each layer was covered with càrritx, a tall pampas-like grass, to make it easier to split the blocks later. When the pit was full it was covered with ashes, branches and more càrritx, then carefully guarded. On summer nights blocks of ice were taken down on mules to the villages and towns. It was not only used for ice creams and cooling drinks, but also for medicinal preparations. The local authority controlled the price and a tax was fixed on it. Sometimes ice had