Sao Mamede Natural Park

The Parque Natural da Serra de São Mamede is one of Europe’s most beautiful and unspoilt areas ideal for artists, sightseeing, bird watching, wine tasting, self guided walking holidays or relaxing by the cottages pool and detaching from the busy world whilst listening to the sounds of nature, birdsong and distant goat and sheep bells.

 It is a region of forest, wooded hills, rocky ridges, olive, chestnut and cork trees and fertile valleys intermingled with a maze of medieval tracks and medieval and Roman roads. The plain around the hilly park is replete with megalithic sites. Some of Portugal’s prettiest villages and medieval fortress towns are located here including Marvao and Castelo de Vide both just a short distance from the cottages.

Route maps are provided with way marked walking routes within the park which are almost all circular and are varied in terrain and ambience. Mountain bikes are available for your use and the forest tracks surrounding the cottages are perfect terrain.

The park contrasts with the rolling plains of grain and oak that typify the Alentejo because it comprises a higher area provided by granite, quartzite and schist more characteristic of the Iberian plateau that covers the northern parts of Spain. Within this protected region the mountain range known as the Serra de São Mamede at 1025 metres overlooks the vast plains of the Alentejo and into Extremadura in Spain

The Parque Natural da Serra de São Mamede at the southern border of the Central Iberian Zone is a ripple on the surface of the earth's crust which occurred possibly 180 million years ago. Granite that metamorphosed under the extreme pressure of this collision is 500 million years old from the Primary Era.

The tectonic plate boundaries that exist today are on the other side of Portugal some way off in the Atlantic ocean and São Mamede has been at rest since those ancient times