Benahavís - Cerro de la Matrona - Castillo de Montemayor - Circular Walk

For this walk we parked our car in the Avenida de Andalucia, where there are may possible parking places.

From here we went down through the centre to and alongside the sports fields and followed the Calle Del Molino out of town to the reservoir of the Rio Guadalmina.

Then we followed the Sendero de la Torna del Agua for a while, white-green signposts but after following this track for one kilometre we took a path to the left as that one would take us quicker to the crossroads at 375 metres that we were aiming for. There we turned to the right and after 50 metres coming upon another crossrodas we turned to the left.

From here on the track becomes very scenic and remains more or less at a height of 425 metres. You will have wonderful views towards the foothills of the Sierra de las Nieves and the A-397 that winds its way towards Ronda and somewhat further on you will even see some of the grey white peaks of the Sierra de las Nieves.

After walking this track for slightly more than 1 kilometre you will come upon a fork of which the left side goes steeply up. You can take the right fork as well as it leads to the same crossroads but the steep one will give you another splendid all around view, including the coast towards Gibraltar. After that there will be a very steep descent back to the original track again and you will find yourself at another crosroads.

here we turned sharply to the left and walked another scenic track with beautiful views on the coast, Gibaltar, Morocco, and the Sierra Bermeja and everything in between. Ignoring three tracks to the right we walkde for another 1.9 kilometres until we reached a cossroads that you could also reach much sooner if you had turned left at the before mentioned Crossroads at 375 metres but then you would have missed a beautiful scenic track.

From now on you will have great views in the direction of Fuengirola while descending slightly towards 425 metres.

The following part, towards the Castillo de Montemayor, is one that you should not miss either as the the climb to the Castillo, situated at 579 metres, is a bautiful, narrow track, steep but not difficult at all and the reward at the top is enormous. What a place! What a view.

After the descent of Montemayor we took the first gravel road to the right and from here on you will have an unimpeded briljant view of the countryside and the sea for the last stretch of this very, very beautiful walk.