Exploring Portugal: Peneda-Gerês National Park

By Conan & Ruaidhri Marshall

Only a couple of hours drive from the city of Porto, Peneda-Gêres National Park offers beautiful scenery - including waterfalls and highland villages.

A photo from our visit to the national park (Conan Marshall)

A brief introduction to Peneda-Gerês National Park

A typical cluster of houses amongst the vastness of the valley.

A park that remains largely unknown compared to the plethora of European national parks open to hikers and adventurers, Peneda-Gêres is shared with the distinct region of Galicia in Northern Spain. It remains Portugal’s only national Park.

This stunning series of mountains and forests lie in Northern Portugal (Norte Region), sitting just over an hour’s drive from Porto, Portugal’s second largest city (we’ll have more to come on this unique city in a future post).

While the smaller, historic cities of Braga and Guimaraes can be located closer to the park.

These rugged forests and mountains are home to deer, wolves and golden eagles. Along with the wolf, the Golden Eagle was traditionally been viewed as a threat to livestock. Both these predators were almost hunted to extinction, although they have been protected by law since the end of the 20th century and there’s apparently around 100 wolves left in the national park to this day.

The entire 271 square miles (703 square kilometres) of Peneda-Gerês is inhabited by people although a high level of regulation ensures that the ecosystem is constantly supervised to support conservation attempts. The park remains unique in this way, with many national parks not including a local population spread across the landscape. The community remains largely old but strong, with traditions being kept alive to this today. We can see that example in the watermills and olive and wine presses that lay scattered across the hills.

Below is a collection of photographs from our recent adventure in the park. More to come soon.