Skip to content
Cabañeros National Park
ES
Cabañeros
Woodland with cork oaks in the Viñuela valley

Trails

Cañada Real Segoviana-Los Alcornoques

Where the transhumant flocks used to pass, up to a cork oak several centuries old.

Cover photo: the Viñuela valley, the other route that starts from the same car park.

A short route with a lot of history. It climbs to the Cañada Real Segoviana, the great drove road along which transhumant shepherds brought their sheep down to the winter pastures, and follows it among old cork oaks to one several centuries old that people call El Abuelo (the Grandfather). It starts from the same car park as La Viñuela.

Practical information

Practical information

Self-guided
Booking
Not needed.
Start and parking
Car park at km 80.5 of the CM-4017, the road from Horcajo de los Montes to Retuerta del Bullaque.
Duration
1 h 15 min there and back
Length
4.6 km there and back
Climb
150 m
Difficulty
Medium
Leaflet
«Senda de la Cañada Real Segoviana: la trashumancia en la Edad Media», for doing it as a self-guided walk, at the information points and on the park's website.

For seeing wildlife, the first and last hours of daylight are the best, according to the park. Official data: park information (MITECO, 2025, in Spanish).

The route

From the car park, a path climbs through rockrose scrub to the Espinazo del Can pass. At the top it joins the Cañada Real, which enters the Montes de Toledo by the Marchés pass and runs along the foot of the Sierra del Chorito looking for the easiest way through. Opposite there is a signposted viewpoint with wide views over the park.

On the right, a track follows the ridge among rockroses. On a cleared stretch you can see the official width of a cañada real, 90 Castilian varas, about 75 metres. The old cork oaks, with their enormous crowns, still mark the line of the drove road, now abandoned. Below, beside the road, is the Venta Nueva, where the shepherds rested with their livestock. The path ends at the foot of El Abuelo, and from there you go back the same way. This last stretch is new: the Ciudad Real provincial council extended the route as far as the cork oak in spring 2023, with the Tourism Sustainability Plan, according to the park newsletter of March–April 2023.

To do it self-guided, the park has the leaflet «Senda de la Cañada Real Segoviana: la trashumancia en la Edad Media» (in Spanish).

Getting there

The starting point is the car park at km 80.5 of the CM-4017, between Horcajo de los Montes and Retuerta del Bullaque, the same as for the La Viñuela route.

Other trails in Cabañeros

Bibliography