Go slow in Andalucia’s secret Sierra
Escape the Costa crowds (and prices) and explore the Sierras Subbeticas on foot, says Isabella Noble – even if fitness isn’t your thing
n the shade of the crumbling Cortijo Moreno, a century-old farmhouse abandoned around 40 years ago, a golden dun Andalucian horse was grazing away. Hearing footsteps, he wandered over to meet us. The surrounding oak trees rippled beneath looming limestone cliffs in the delicious late-summer breeze. There was no one else around.
I was in Andalucia’s secluded Sierra Subbetica, on a just-launched Cordobato-Granada inn-to-inn walking trip with sustainability-driven Pura Aventura. Though only an hour’s drive from Granada and Cordoba and 90 minutes from sunny Malaga (where I grew up), this wonderfully intriguing rural corner of southeast Cordoba province remains remarkably under the radar.
At its heart lies the rugged 125square-mile Parque Natural Sierras Subbeticas, a protected Unesco Geopark since 2006 – and it was here that I was tackling the spectacular 10-mile Bailon Gorge trail from Zuheros, one of Andalucia’s loveliest white villages.
“This horse probably belongs to the sheep farm along the path,” said my hiking guide, Antonio Ábalos, who runs
Zuheros’s pioneering (and charming) Hotel Zuhayra with his brother Juan Carlos. “The thing you’ll notice here in the Subbetica is the complete tranquility. Come up during the week, to walk and have a picnic under the holm oak trees, and it’s idyllic.”
Heading on, we passed several other derelict farmhouses with stone-built eras (threshing floors), paused at tinkling fountains and met the farm’s freeroaming sheep, whose bells clanked melodically in the otherwise silent hills. Then we plunged down through the craggy canyon, passing a group of rockclimbers, and back into Zuheros, buzzing at Saturday lunchtime.
Clambering up Zuheros’s precariously perched cragtop castle – a ninthcentury Moorish fortress expanded in the 16th century – I spotted griffon vultures circling above and, below, in the distance, the Via Verde del Aceite, another draw of the Subbetica. The “Tren del Aceite” (Oil Train) chugged along here until the mid-1980s; now, its disused, reimagined tracks whirl you through olive groves and across viaducts, along a thrilling 80-mile cycling and walking path between Jaen city and Cordoba’s Puente Genil.
“We opened Hotel Zuhayra 25 years ago, so I’ve seen the Via Verde be born, and grow,” Juan Carlos told me. “Now we have guests who come to stay specifically so they can try it.”
Reluctantly leaving Zuheros behind (loaded with some of its divine goat’s cheese), I headed southeast through seemingly endless olive trees to Casa
Olea – a creatively restored olive-growing farmhouse, with sections dating back 150 years, hidden in a blissfully quiet river valley near whitewashed Priego de Cordoba. British owners Tim and Claire Murray-Walker lovingly converted the Andalucian cortijo over five years, bringing in solar panels, a biomass boiler and other eco-friendly initiatives, as well as handmade ceramic tiles, carved woodwork and wroughtiron balconies, all locally crafted.
“The Priego area makes the best extra virgin olive oil in the world,” said Tim, over a blind-tasting session in Casa Olea’s cosy bar-restaurant. “Andalucia alone produces more olive oil than Italy, and the olive-growing history here goes back to at least Roman times. Those enormous olive trees by the house, for
example, are around 500 years old. Some of the groves feel like forests because they have been here for so long, even providing refuge for birds and other wildlife.”
Such is the importance of central Andalucia’s Mar de Olivos (Sea of Olive Trees), which sprawls 5,800 square miles across Cordoba, Jaen, Malaga and Granada provinces, that Spain is campaigning for it to become a protected Unesco landscape. Roaming around it, on foot or by bike, is one of the Subbetica’s wow moments, and Tim and Claire helpfully hand out detailed routes.
Casa Olea has around 100 ancient, organic olive trees of its own, usually harvested in October. This strong, peppery home-grown olive oil is one of the stars of Claire’s fabulous cooking. “I use only what’s local and in season, and keep our meals healthy,” she says. Everything, from red pepper and feta salad dressed with pesto, to just-baked mango and coconut cake, is a joy – and even better with a glass of sherry-like MontillaMoriles fino wine and some pillowyfresh bread dunked in house olive oil.
Along with day-tripping to Granada, Cordoba, Antequera or even Malaga, anyone venturing to the Subbetica will delight in discovering Priego’s own historical riches. Thanks to its oncethriving textile and agricultural industries, Priego conceals some of Andalucia’s finest 18th-century
baroque architecture, which trickled out to neighbouring towns such as Cabra and Lucena. On a lively Sunday morning, I meandered through the tangled Barrio de la Villa (the original Moorish quarter), where flame-red geraniums popped against sunlit walls, then ducked into the 15th-century Iglesia de la Aurora, now a vision of extravagantly sculpted baroque floral motifs.
From Priego, it is a 15-minute drive (or a rewarding seven-mile hike) west to ancient Almedinilla village, where my next small, family-run and completely enchanting rural stay lay waiting. Nine years ago, almedinillenses Raúl Córdoba and Davinia Ordóñez transformed their former restaurant into a rusticboutique hideaway, Hospederia La Era, with seven rooms, all-organic toiletries, solar panels, biomass energy and a soothing circular pool. After Spain’s onoff pandemic closures, they are now back to being happily rushed off their feet.
Gastronomy is still the heart of their business: dreamy, creative breakfasts and dinners out on the shady patio revolve around Spain’s growing Slow Food movement. “Everything is organic and from this area,” explained Davinia, handing over a locally handmade ceramic bowl full of garlicky salmorejo drizzled with olive oil (from Priego, of course). “We have our own vegetable garden and buy the rest from the local organic growers’ association, Subbetica Ecologica. Some weeks we meet in Cabra village to swap deliveries!”
With a population of just 2,400, Almedinilla is packed with historical curiosities. High above the mural-filled El Ruedo Roman villa (uncovered in the late 1980s) and the village’s original 17th-century core, hugging the Rio Caicena, sits the major pre-Roman Iberian settlement of Cerro de Santa Cruz. “Around a decade ago, archaeologists found a room containing 40-odd amphorae,” Raúl told me as we wandered through in the sizzling September midday heat.
That afternoon, my last hike threaded towards Almedinilla’s Sierra de Albayate and the tucked-away Salto del Caballo waterfall, before looping uphill into fragrant olivos centenarios (centuries-old olive trees). As the twinkling pink-tinged sunset faded into darkness, an owl hooted in the distance and we scrambled back down to join the rest of the world.
The final leg of the trip spun southeast, past Alcala la Real’s formidable fort and history-rich Moclin (whose Nasridera castle held strong until the mid1480s), and on to always-magical Granada, the Sierra Nevada beckoning beyond. Though really, I found myself still lost in the Subbetica’s whispering olive groves, watching the sun drop over the sierra and pondering which peaceful path to explore next.