barranc d algendar ferreries
menorca's barrancs, or gorges, are wild and lonely places, deep clefts formed over tens of thousands of years by the gradual erosion of the limestone plateau in the south. the gorges attract a huge variety of wildlife birds, butterflies, flowers. kestrels and kites nestle among the rushes; you see herons, buzzards and booted eagles. lizards sun themselves on the rocks and tortoises wade through the marshes. the combination of rainfall, humidity and protection from the wind produces a richness of vegetation rarely seen elsewhere....
mao
there was a city here in roman times; its name, mahon, may be that of hannibal's brother but is more likely derived from a phoenician word meaning 'shelter'. modern mahon dates from the catalan conquest; it was alfonso iii, the conqueror, who began both the church of santa maria and the city walls, of which only the gateway of port de sant roc survives. the greatest influence on the city you see today, though, is probably british. it was the british who moved the capital to mao and filled it with georgian style architecture not seen anywhere else in spain. streets such as carrer isabel ii are adorned with grand 18th century houses, with furniture in the style of sheraton and chippendale and bow windows leaning across the pavement....
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ciutadella
where mao is bureaucratic, ciutadella is artistic; where mao has power, ciutadella has style. the nobility and the church stayed behind when the capital was moved to mao with the result that ciutadella remains a pure catalan city, undiluted by british or french architecture or the ideas that colonial rulers brought in their wake....
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cala pregonda beach cove
everyone has their own favourite menorcan cove but the one factor they all have in common is that you cannot reach them by road. approaching cala pregonda on foot. you wonder what all the fuss is about surely a perfect cove cannot have concrete houses behind the beach? but sit against the dunes with your back to the houses. surrounded by wild flowers on a quiet day in spring or autumn, looking out beyond the shore to the sandstone rocks and beyond that to cap de cavalleria , and you begin to feel the magic of this place....
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fornells
fornells is everybody's idea of a mediterranean fishing village white painted houses around a harbor bobbing with boats, restaurants on the waterfront along a palm lined promenade. nowadays, of course, tourism is more important than fishing, but there is still a fishing industry here and the fish in the restaurants is genuinely local and fresh. fornells is known above all for its spiny lobsters, the essential ingredient in a caldereta de langosta - king juan carlos of spain sails over regularly from mallorca just to eat lobster at fornells....
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monte taro
menorca's highest mountain is crowned by a convent which has become an important centre of pilgrimage. its name almost certainly derives from aitor, arabic for 'highest mountain', despite the local legend about a bull (toro in spanish) who discovered a statue of the virgin in a cleft in the rock....
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naveta des tudons
of all the prehistoric monuments on menorca, this is probably the most visited. until the 1950s it was dishevelled and overgrown; for centuries it had been used as a cattle shed but was fully restored in 1959-60 and again in 1975....
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placa des born ciutadella
during the fascist era this square at the heart of ciutadella was renamed after general franco, but everyone continued to call it 'es born'. the word born means parade-ground, and the square was used for jousting contests in earlier times and is still the venue for an equestrian parade during the city's annual festivities in june....
port de mao mao harbour
when the european powers fought over menorca in the 18th century, the greatest prize was the harbor at mao. the world's second largest natural harbor, 5km long and up to 900m wide, was wrongly believed to provide an impregnable mediterranean base. the best way to see the harbor is on one of the one hour boat tours that leave from the foot of the harbor steps in summer. the water is deep but it remains incredibly clear and from a glass bottomed boat you can see the sea bed....
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s albufera des grau
there used to be many more areas of wetland around the menorcan coast, but most were drained for agriculture by the british or reclaimed for tourist urbanizacions in the 1960s. of those that survive, s'albufera is the largest and most important a 70 m lagoon is separated from the sea by a barrier of sand, creating salt-water marshes beside a freshwater lake....
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