This is a nine-day walking holiday in remote and deeply rural western Spain, set in two distinct mountain groups – and in the plains beneath them. One is the Sierra de Guadalupe, the other the Sierra de Tormantos (a western extension of the Gredos Mountains). Both mountain groups are in the little known region of Extremadura, rich in birdlife and wild flowers, and both are firmly touched by the hand of history.

The Guadalupe range is quartzite. Its wave-like mountain ridges, running north-south, are topped by dramatic dinosaur-back flanges of rock. It shelters the beautiful Monastery of Guadalupe, complete with numinous Black Virgin, goal of an important Marian pilgrimage. This was the main shrine of the conquistadors, who ravaged America in the 16th century – a great proportion of them from Extremadura; it is the spiritual centre of modern Extremadura.

We begin with a walk from the main gate of our farmhouse hotel near Trujillo, followed by walks on two successive days on stages of the pilgrimage route to Guadalupe: on the first we enter the mountain range, on the second we walk deeper in and higher. We end with a visit to the Monastery, the Virgin and the famous suite of paintings by Zurbarán, still in the site for which they were painted.

The Sierra de Tormantos is granite country, with huge eroded boulders and running water aplenty. On its northern side is the Jerte valley, with Spain’s greatest concentration of cherry orchards. On the southern side is the valley of La Vera with the Monastery of Yuste. To this remote and rustic spot the emperor Charles V, most powerful man in the known world, retired in 1556 in search of a climate of ‘perpetual springtime’. The sierra here offers exceptional walking – not least the dramatic route which brought Charles V from the Jerte Valley to La Vera. We spend one day walking in the plains and two days on upland routes, including that of Charles V, or a gentle and beautiful alternative. You choose.

The country around these mountain groups is mostly dehesa – that classic Iberian habitat, with evergreen holm oaks and cork oaks standing well-spaced in grazing country. Walking here is more peaceful and calming, through land rich in wild flowers and birdlife.

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