Distance: 9 km Time: 3 hours
Difficulty Rating: Medium
MapMyWalk Link PDF Link (available to SpainAway guests)
This walk which is based almost entirely on Elma Thompson’s FR/05 walk, is a 9 km trek through rolling countryside to the north west of Frigiliana. As always, it begins at the roundabout on the ring road, just below the El Ingenio sugar factory, then heading for the other, north western, end of the old town, before heading out on the Frigiliana-Torrox road (MA 5105).
Although you can reach this far point by simply walking further out along the ring road, we have chosen to take you instead on a more attractive route through the centre of the old town, on its only driveable stretch, C/ Real, choosing the ring road option for the return journey.
The map below shows the route in its entirety, with km markers inset, together with an indication of the elevation reached during the walk. You can also link to the online version of this map, located on the MapMyWalk website, with the ability to zoom in onto much finer details and so on, as described in our introduction. The link details are given above.
Thus you need to walk up the ramp to below El Ingenio, turning left up into the village, and then keeping left at the point where a series of steps lead off further upwards. C/ Real then takes you past the church, and then continues on down until emerging at the roundabout at the far end, where the ring road re-joins. We then head out along the main road to Torrox, reaching the Venta de Frigiliana restaurant after a total of about 4 km. There are other routes possible, that head into the countryside, avoiding this main road, but it is easily navigated, with little traffic to bother you. More importantly, since the bulk of the route takes place through countryside sprinkled with delightful country villas, the road surface has now been concreted throughout, and, although this is not the most attractive surface for walking on, it does mean that the route is bikeable, which is why we have stuck to the main road on the way out.
Continuing on up the main road, you will reach the Venta de Frigiliana itself on your left hand side. This well-known and highly regarded restaurant, like many such that are encountered on our routes, is subject to varied opening hours, best ascertained before you start off if you are thinking of stopping off there. Immediately after you reach the Venta de Frigiliana you need to take a sharp turn left, passing down by the right hand side of it. The track passes through pine woods, with several interesting crags on either side, until you reach a 4-way junction (together with a fifth turn off into a driveway), shortly after passing a large white circular ‘deposito’, or water tank, on your right. Here you need to take the first turn to the left, almost doubling back on yourself, as you then continue on downhill. There are blue and orange arrows painted on to the road here, presumably intended to guide you. After dropping down into the valley the road climbs up again, on a gradient of 16%, until reaching a junction with a track off to your right (next to a sign for Villa Aliados), where you of course need to continue uphill off to your left, still on the concrete road. Once the road tops out, and you continue on downhill, you will pass an extensive villa on your right with an unusual structure attached to it, which is actually just a deposito, but with a bandstand type structure on top of it, picture below left.
After winding its way over a few more valleys, this road reaches a crossroads where you need to carry straight on, signposted’ Hotel Rural La Posada Morisca’, picture above right, following the arrow. [In fact at this point your return journey actually follows the route out from Frigiliana, in reverse, as described in our ‘Loma de la Cruz’ walk. Hence you could if you wished turn right here instead, following the remainder of the Loma de la Cruz route, rather than heading straight back. This would extend your walk by about 6.5 km]. However, following our current route, as the road then winds down you will see your destination point of Frigiliana over to your right. Once the road starts to wind down again you obviously need to keep on the main (white) concreted road throughout, avoiding the track up left to the Hotel mentioned above. Eventually you will come out onto the MA 5105 again, at the Restaurante Sante Cristo (turning right here), a short distance above the roundabout at the western end of Frigiliana. Then continue along the ring road to your right until getting back to your start point.
