Walk the GR221 Drystone Route with a Cicerone Guidebook

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• Sample Route
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Mallorca is the largest of the Balearic Islands, basking in sunny splendour in the Mediterranean between Spain and Algeria. It has been a favourite destination for sun-starved northern Europeans for many decades. While beach holidays remain popular, more and more visitors seek the quieter pleasures of rural Mallorca, especially taking opportunities to explore the island’s most rugged mountain range, the Serra de Tramuntana.

In the high mountains there is more shade among the evergreen oak and pines, with cooling breezes to temper the heat of the sun. Away from the bustling resorts the pace of life in the mountain villages is more sedate and relaxing. Almond trees burst into blossom, oranges ripen in the sun and vineyards yield heavy bunches of grapes. Kid goats bleat plaintively, often unseen among the undergrowth, while bongling bells alert shepherds to the location of their free-range herds of sheep. Every so often, emerging from the forests, walkers discover the sun-scorched façades of palatial mansions, wayside ermitas and little casetas. In a sense, the visitor who is prepared to walk can forget everything they’ve ever heard about Mallorca, and start afresh by making new discoveries every day, around every corner.

As walking became more and more popular over the years and guidebooks proliferated in many languages, the island authorities began to purchase rural estates, protecting them from development and marking paths and tracks that were suitable for walkers. It was only a matter of time before they turned their attention to the creation of a long-distance walking route. The GR221 is also known as the Ruta de Pedra en Sec, or the Drystone Route. It has been created by the Consell de Mallorca, or more specifically the Department de Natura i Medi Ambient, with input from local councils. While the eastern parts are well-signposted and fully waymarked, there is still some work to be done on the western parts, as well as on some variant and alternative routes. Some old paths high in the mountains have been completely rebuilt, at considerable expense, and one popular path is protected along with its landscape as a site of cultural interest.

Most of the mountainous, well-wooded Serra de Tramuntana is made of limestone, which has provided the raw material to build all kinds of structures from humble huts to splendid palaces and churches. The limestone readily breaks into blocks, and can be broken into chippings or even burnt to produce lime for mortar. Put one lump of limestone on top of another and all manner of drystone constructions are possible. The GR221 is more than a long-distance walk, and features a wealth of drystone structures from start to finish.

Walking the GR221 involves walking on the bare limestone bedrock of Mallorca, or following old stone-paved paths through the mountains. Massive drystone buttresses, or marges, hold cultivation terraces in place on steep mountainsides. Stone channels, or canaletes, carry water to where it is needed. Strange stone structures encountered along the way include large limekilns and little bread ovens. Circular sitges, or charcoal burning platforms, often have the crude stone hut of a carboner, or charcoal burner, alongside. There are drystone walls, cairns and stone-lined snow-pits on the high mountains, all created from limestone blocks. In effect, the GR221 is a celebration of the life and back-breaking labour of the mountains of Mallorca, as well as being a scenic and interesting route.

The GR221 pops in and out of a series of attractive little mountain villages, as well as visiting a couple of fine towns, often following old mule paths running from one to another. The villages generally provide good accommodation and offer a selection of bars and restaurants, as well as a couple of shops stocking provisions. They also have good bus services, allowing walkers to join or leave the route from elsewhere. A splendid range of services is available along the route, and this guidebook contains all the details you need to follow walk the GR221 through the mountains over a period of one or two weeks.

Brief History of Mallorca

Mallorca has been inhabited for more than 6000 years, when the earliest settlers lived in caves, hunted and kept animals, made stone tools and employed certain rituals when burying their dead. Around 4000 years ago, stone buildings and large towers, or talaiots, were constructed, suggesting highly organised societies working together for the common good, while still engaging in serious disputes with their neighbours.

The Carthaginians established trading posts and often recruited local people to defend them. Most of the ports on the island today had their origins around this time. The Romans invaded Mallorca in 123BC, but much of their work was later destroyed by Vandals from North Africa. After the breakup of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine general Belisarius dealt with the Vandals, and the Balearic islands were linked with what is now Tunisia. As part of the Byzantine Empire, Mallorca again became a trading post protected by military might.

Arab raids commenced in AD707. Arab settlers profoundly influenced the development of agriculture. The legacy of these times is recalled in placenames - Bini means ‘house of’, as in Binibassi and Biniaraix. In Palma the Moorish arches of the Almudaina palace and the Arab baths can be seen.

In 1229 Jaume I of Aragon ‘The Conqueror’, led a fleet of 150 ships and an army of 16,000 men to Mallorca. Their intention was to land at Port de Pollença, but they were prevented by storms so they sheltered in the lee of Sa Dragonera and later landed at Santa Ponça. The re-conquest was completed in 1230, but this did not lead to peaceful times. Disputes between his sons, passed on to their sons and heirs, led to successive invasions, but the royal line continued through Jaume II and Jaume III, the latter being killed in battle in 1349. The reign of independent kings ended, and Aragon took control of the island.

Mallorca’s chequered history continued with invasions, rebellions and natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and outbreaks of cholera and bubonic plague. Watchtowers, or talaies, were built between 1550 and 1650 on high vantage points, so that invaders and pirates could be spotted in good time. In 1716 Mallorca finally lost the title of kingdom and became a province of Spain. The Catalan language was suppressed under Franco’s dictatorship, but has since flourished and is evident throughout Mallorca.

Mountain Heritage

The GR221, the Ruta de Pedra en Sec, highlights the heritage of the mountains, especially the built heritage, which often uses nothing more basic than roughly-hewn lumps of limestone. On the lower cultivated slopes, note how the terraces are held in place by the massive drystone buttresses (marges) and watered by the stone-lined channels (canaletes). Water may be stored in tanks, or cisternas, or in small underground reservoirs, or aljubs, all built of stone.

Look out for large stone-lined pits, which will be limekilns, or forns de calç, on the lower slopes. On the highest mountainsides, larger and deeper stone-lined pits were used for storing snow and ice, often referred to as cases de sa neu. In dense holm oak woodland look out for the dark, flat, circular, moss-grown remains of charcoal burning platforms, or sitges (singular sitja). Somewhere nearby will be the low remains of the circular huts of the carboner, or charcoal burner. Stone-built outdoor bread ovens are likely to be spotted nearby. Drystone walls and cairns abound almost everywhere.

Snow Collecting

The highest paths on Mallorca were built by nevaters, or snow-collectors. Snow was collected to make ice for use in the summer and conserved in snow-pits, or cases de sa neu. These were located on Puig Major, Puig de Massanella, Puig Tomir, Es Teix and the Serra d’Alfàbia, most of them above 900m (2950ft). The pits were usually circular, sometimes rectangular, partly or wholly below the ground. When the mountains were covered with snow, groups of men went up to gather the snow in baskets. Flat platforms were made and cleared of vegetation, where the snow was arranged in layers and trampled down hard to pack it into ice, in time to the rhyme:
 

Pitgen sa neu, pitgen sa neu,
i tots estan dins ses cases !
Peguen potades, peguen potades,
en Toni, en Xisco, en Juan i n’Andreu.

Tramp the snow, tramp the snow,
and throw it in the pit!
Beat it down, beat it down,
on Tony, Harry, John and Andrew.
 

The packed snow was put into the pit and each layer covered with càrritx, a pampas-like grass, to make it easier to split the blocks later. When the pit was full it was covered with ashes and branches then carefully guarded. On summer nights blocks of ice were taken down on mules to the villages and towns. It was not only used for ice-creams and cooling drinks, but also medicinally. The local authority controlled the price and a tax was fixed on it. Sometimes ice had to be imported from the mainland, but in glut years it was exported to Menorca. The last time a snow-pit was used was in 1925 on Puig de Massanella.

Charcoal Burning

Complex networks of paths were made by charcoal burners, or carboners. Almost every evergreen oakwood was once used for the production of charcoal. Charcoal burning hearths are flat circular areas, often ringed by stones and covered with bright green moss. Wild campers like to use them! Serving as landmarks in the route descriptions in this guidebook, they are referred to as sitges (singular sitja). Charcoal burning lasted until butane gas became popular in the 1920s, although in some areas production lasted longer. Charcoal was used specifically for cooking, being preferred over wood because it was cleaner and gave a steadier heat.

Carboners started work in April, living and working all summer in the woods with their families. They had to watch their hearths as charcoal burning is a delicate operation and everything could be ruined in a moment of neglect. The idea is to carbonise the wood, not burn it to ashes. Carboners lived in simple, circular stone huts, roofed with branches and grass. The remains of huts, as well as modern reconstructions, are often seen in the woods, along with beehive-shaped stone bread ovens nearby.

Axes and enormous two-handed saws were used to fell large oaks, of a diameter stipulated by the landowner. Each carboner had his own area, or ranxo. A circular site was prepared, with stones carefully arranged so that air intake was limited to carbonise the wood without igniting it. Logs and branches were arranged in a ‘cupola’, leaving a narrow central chimney. Gravel and clay were then heaped over it; a ladder was used to reach the chimney, so that the carboner could start the firing process.

The weight of the wood was reduced by 75-80%, and each firing lasted up to twelve days. Sieved earth was used for quenching and the covering was then removed. The hot charcoal was extracted with a shovel and rake; an average burn could produce around 2800 kilos (2¾ tons) of charcoal. Once cool, the pieces of charcoal were graded, loaded onto mules and taken to towns and villages for sale. Bark from the oak trees was also collected and used for tanning.
 

Lime Burning

Limekilns, or forns de calç, are seen throughout the woodlands in the mountains. They are quite different from those seen in Britain, as they lack a draw-hole at the bottom, and are simply deep, stone-lined pits. Great heat was needed to split the calcium carbonate (CaCO3) into calcium oxide (CaO) and carbon dioxide (CO2), so a plentiful supply of wood was necessary. Although a vast amount of limestone is available, the stones used to produce lime were always chosen very carefully, and referred to as pedra viva or ‘living stones’.

At the base of the pit, a ‘cupola’ was built of large stones with gaps left between them for aeration. Above the ‘cupola’ more stones were built up, and the spaces around the sides of the kiln were filled with the actual stones that were to be converted into lime. The interior was filled with wood and the top of the kiln was covered with earth. The fire was lit and kept burning from nine to 15 days, with more wood added continually. Huge quantities of wood were needed, up to 155,000 kilos (150 tons), leading to devastation of the forests, producing as little as 10,000 kilos (10 tons) of lime. It was very hard work and brought little financial reward. According to an old proverb, ‘qui fa calç, va descalç’, or ‘he who makes lime goes barefoot’. Lime was used for the annual whitewashing of houses and also for making mortar.