From Ferreries to Cala Galdana via the Torrepetxina staircase

PalmaIn this route we explore the only viable path to descend from Ferreries to Cala Galdana, the Torrepetxina staircase. A well-known traditional itinerary of Menorcan hiking, the path allows overcoming the unevenness of the rocky walls of the ravine, connecting the inland area with the valley floor. The origin of this path is historical and purely livestock and agricultural. The Algendar ravine has been, since the era of Arab rule and the Middle Ages, one of the most fertile areas of the island thanks to its permanent water stream. The orchards at the bottom of the ravine needed to be connected to the places on the upper part of the rocky platform, such as the Torrepetxina site. Hence the existence of this route, given that the traditional one, which starts from the same clearing of the monumental holm oak of the Algendar ravine, has been closed for years.

We have public transport both to reach Ferreries and to return from Cala Galdana. For timetables and line availability, you can consult the 'Mou-t Menorca' website (mou-tmenorca.com).

The route

[00 min] From the municipal cemetery, we start walking in the direction of Ferreries. Soon we turn right onto Carrer del Camp. Here we find the signs and information panels for the Camí Reial. To the left of the path we have the Pouets [05 min], an ancient construction dedicated to the supply of drinking water for the inhabitants of Ferreries. After a gentle descent, we cross the Cala Galdana road (Me-22) and, heading west, we undertake a brief and intense climb until we reach the height of the Biniatrum site. We advance along a dirt path between dry stone walls.

Upon arriving in front of the gate of the Son Guarnesset site [25 min], the signs divert us to the right. We enter fully onto the Royal path while immersing ourselves in a dense holm oak forest. Here we find the Son Gornés cross [35 min], which commemorates a tragic event that occurred in this very spot in September 1865, when a lightning bolt caused the death of a messenger while he was gathering livestock in the area with some other companions. The information panel also tells us about “the hunter’s fear” and how Pons de les Ferreries, a great hunter, did not have his best day on the Saturday of the Mare de Déu de Gràcia.

We continue our walk along this beautiful and ancestral bridle path, which now leads us to cross the discreet hollows of the Algendaret ravine. We leave to the left the spring or well of the White Partridge, an interesting ethnographic complex for the use of water resources and a space that houses one of the numerous legends of this region, and we reach a new point of interest, the Royal cave [1 h 00 min], to the right of the path. Beyond its uses in prehistory, it seems that this small cave has served for centuries as shelter for muleteers, shepherds, hunters, and farmers. Next comes the coast of na Salema, a place name of Muslim origin that means peace and serenity.

[1 h 10 min] The Old path ends and leads onto an asphalt road, which also reaches Ferreries. We continue straight ahead until a wooden sign directs us to the left. [1 h 05 min] It is the precise marker to begin the descent through the Revull pass, one of the most beautiful and enchanting passages on the island of Menorca.

Revull was an “outlawed Moor” with squinting eyes (hence his name) who had hidden in that rugged area. One fine day, the inhabitants of the region gave him a head start and found him under the Penya Fosca, caves that we find on the left side of the path. This old Menorcan legend will accompany us during the four-hundred-meter journey through this pass, a refuge of biodiversity that surprises both for the lushness and density of the forest and for the diversity of plant species.

At the end, we emerge onto the dirt path we left earlier [1 h 25 min]. At the exit of the pass, on some rocks to our right, we can see another cross. According to Francesc d’Albranca, they placed it in memory of a man from Ferreries who set out to remove a nest of kites or royal falcons that was in the Penya Fosca. The path continues descending parallel to the stream we have on our right.

The next points of interest are the Penyes spring, on the left, and the houses of Sant Antoni de s’Aranjassa and Molí de Dalt, on the right [1 h 30 min]. This place is ideal for remembering the tragic story of that bride, cursed by a witch and kidnapped by pirates, who went mad upon learning that, after a long escape, she had remained a prisoner in her own land. “The bride of Algendar / today is on land, –tomorrow she will be at sea: / today she eats capons and chickens, / tomorrow she will eat sardines / by the edge of the sea.”

The path crosses the ravine and rises impressively, enclosed within the stone gorge. A magnificent and monumental holm oak, ‘la Senyora’, on the left side, gives way to a plain below some crags, with a traditional reservoir [1 h 40 min]. We continue climbing until we begin to peek out of the gully. Here we must be attentive to a green mark on the dry stone wall on our left [1 h 45 min]. The same wall articulates a passage that allows us to access the trail that connects the Royal path with the Torrepetxina staircase.

Facing south, the path advances clinging to a dry stone wall located on our left, at the end of which we find a gate that we must pass through. The next one is on the right, behind which we find an old well with a trough. Guided by the green markers, we will go from one enclosure to another, where natural pastures predominate: land covered with herbs and wild plants that grow without direct human intervention and serve as food for the livestock.

Torrepetxina Staircase

[2 h 10 min] The path approaches the cliffs that overlook the Algendar ravine and the Càrritx cave, where we find a beautiful and impressive natural viewpoint. We then re-enter the scrubland, always oriented towards the south. [2 h 25 min] Little by little, the green marks make us turn to the left, towards the interior of a narrow gully, where we find a pig pond and a cistern. Next, the space narrows even more and we descend through a torrent enabled as a path for people and animals, it is the Torrepetxina staircase.

[2 h 40 min] Arrived at the bottom of the valley, enclosed between monumental walls, the path turns to the right in the direction of the sea. Lush pastures and remains of a powerful hydraulic infrastructure, now in disuse, accompany us on this last stretch of the route. Where the path seems to have no continuity we find an iron gate on the right that takes us out onto a wide cart track that we will not leave until we reach the Cala Galdana urbanization [3 h 15 min].

@Fita_a_Fita