Castillejo Trail - PR-A 297

The Castillejo Trail - PR-A 297 starts at the exit of the town of Alcolea, in the direction of Láujar de Andarax. Throughout its route, between the foothills of Sierra de Gádor and Sierra Nevada, we can enjoy a deep green agricultural landscape where olive trees predominate, claimed to be the highest in the world, and small typically Mediterranean meadows with a strong Moorish air.

The ruins of the small fort from the Emirate era that is still preserved in the paraje de El Castillejo, and which gives its name to Alcolea (Alcolaya: el Castillejo, or Small Fortress), is another attraction that you will find in the first part of this route.

A little further on, it goes down beside the course of the Alcolea river, passing downstream near its course, covered with the characteristic reeds and rushes in some areas and riverbank vegetation and it crosses its waters several times during a long path that runs through most of the plain of Alcolea: small, numerous terraced estates that make the most of the land, irrigated by a system of irrigation channels and ditches system reaching every arable corner and where, among olive trees, some of them hundreds of years old, apple, orange, mulberry, pear and pomegranate trees are interspersed…

At the end of the route, it goes up the Cuesta de la Angostura, which is topped by a viewpoint where most of the areas along the walk can be seen, as well as the villages of Granada Alpujarra of the southern foothills of Sierra Nevada.

Then it passes beside the shrine of San Sebastián and San Ildefonso, located in the old Ugíjar path which is a walk amidst huge, leafy age-old olive trees. Mudejar-style shrine from the early 18th century, abandoned for decades and in restoration since 1998. It also houses the Municipal Tourist Office.