Excursions

ES MIGJORN GRAN

Excursions in Es Migjorn Gran

To relive the mythical world of yesterday's Menorca, it is enough to take a short trip around the surroundings. Leaving via the Ferreries road, the third path on the left leads to Albranca Vell. Leaving the car at the gate of the hamlet, and looking over the impressive Sa Cova barranco (ravine), one can contemplate the small house, attached to a cave, where the doctor Francesc Camps was born.

In the same Sa Cova barranco, one can find "Ses Coves Gardes", a set of prehistoric burial caves, and the mythical "Gorg d'Albranca". But to reach them, you must be accompanied by someone who knows the area well. Following the same dirt path, the Son Carabassa estate witnessed one of those terrible stories of Moors and maidens. In its tower, now gone, the only woman who was in the house took refuge upon the arrival of the pirates. And she stood up to them with such courage that, finally, the attackers set fire to the whole house, burning her alive. Another interesting, although also complicated, visit leads to the talayotic sites of Son Mercè de Dalt and de Baix, which are reached by a path that heads to the left, very shortly before entering Ferreries on the road coming from Es Migjorn. Near the barranco, there are two settlements and several burial caves. The most famous is the "Cova des Moro", with a roof of slabs supported by walls and cyclopean columns of the Mediterranean type (with capitals wider than the base). Simpler is the journey that leads to the "Cova des Coloms". One can arrive via the Binigaus estate, then descending to the barranco. It is a short path and, since the cave is very well known, it is easy to find. Very close by, on the Sant Agustí Vell estate, a talaiot has the particularity of preserving a large chamber with a wooden roof.