Pictures

In the heart of the Parque Natural da Serra de São Mamede, a protected nature reserve created in 1989 with the aim of protecting wildlife, unusual plants and preserving traditional life are two 100 year old converted and sympathetically restored cottages with a swimming pool.

They are almost a mile into the forest by vehicle accessible forest track from the tiny hamlet of Besteiros de Cima which is in the Northern Alentejo on the border of Portugal and Spain. Both cottages are self catering and off grid powered and surrounded by over two hundred olive trees, fruit, cork and chestnut trees and the pine and eucalyptus forest, with the Milky Way directly above on clear starlit nights.