The Barracas of Montroig del Camp

Do you remember that a few weeks ago Dave and I visited

Barraca del Tutu

the Joan Miro museum in Montroig del Camp? Part of the museum had been turned over to an interesting photographic exhibition documenting the building of a number of barraques / barracas in the nearby countryside. Yesterday we finally got around to doing a walk which would allow us to see some of these structures in situ. We drove to the barraca named Barraca del Tutu which is numbered 1 on our map - Senderisme Mont Roig i Miami Platja - and parked up before setting out on foot, complete with picnic lunch, to explore. Several of the barracas are signposted from the T-310, but we didn't initially realise this as we drove along that road. If you're looking for them too, watch out for handmade signs with a capital letter B and a number pointing off down dirt tracks!

Barraca doble de Cal Rabosa 

A barraca is essentially a small rural shelter and I have

Inside Barraca del Tutu 

seen the word translated into English as meaning anything from a workmen's hut to an Eskimo igloo. The Montroig barracas use ancient building techniques to create domed stone structures with a simple arched doorway. There aren't any windows although we saw several that had small alcoves inside, presumably for candles or lanterns. Stones high up inside the roof were often blackened by smoke and there is no chimney hole. I guess fire smoke dissipates through gaps between the stones. Generally no fixing substance - such as mortar - is used so it's a bit like dry stone walling in the UK. Looking inside, I was also reminded of the one of the dolmen we saw at Antequera almost exactly two years ago (although not the one pictured in this post). These barracas feel timeless!

Seeing the fields and orchards in this part of Catalonia

explains immediately where all the building stone comes from and I wondered which came first - the need to have small shelters or the need to do something with all this rock! Hill slopes are terraced, again with immense volumes of rock, and there must have been incredible work needed to actually create viable agricultural land here. What is sad to see is where formerly worked land has been abandoned and allowed to revert to scrubland again. The effort required to get it usable again may never make economic sense.

The barracas are all slightly different shapes and designs,

and vary in size. The smallest were tiny huts where we had to crouch to get through the door and probably no more than a couple of people could be seated together. The largest we saw, I think, was this one for which I got Dave to stand in the photo to really give you an idea of its scale. As most of the barracas didn't have name plaques beside them and weren't always where they appeared to be on the map, we did have trouble not only finding them, but also identifying the ones we did see! I think the large barraca pictured here is Barraca dels Communs del Pellicer, but it could be Barraca de l'Aiguader.

Perhaps the most spectacular, and certainly the easiest to

Barraca 'en espiral' 

identify(!), is Barraca 'en espiral' meaning, obviously, in a spiral. This one looks fabulous from the outside, but has no sign of its spiral construction on the inside.

It was very close to another barraca that we probably wouldn't have been able to name had we not seen them almost as a pair. Pictured below, Barraca dels Lliris was the only one we saw which had plants growing on it. I didn't know what the plant was, but it looked to have been deliberately planted all across the roof. Maybe this helps with waterproofing? Maybe it is just for decoration?

Barraca dels Lliris 

There are dozens of barracas across the Montroig area and we only saw a fraction of them. Most aren't directly alongside the camis (agricultural tracks) or footpaths so require shortish detours to find them. Plus, being made of the same stone as much of their surroundings, they blend in remarkably well!

A quartet of Roman monuments in Arles

We nearly decided against visiting Arles as the train fare was going to be

Alyscamps avenue 

some €20 each and Dave's car park research took ages to come up trumps. In the end we got it together to travel there on Thursday and I am so glad we did. Dave recollected reading somewhere online that, for preserved Roman structures, touring southern France is far more rewarding than visiting Rome and we are both coming to agree with that opinion. Not that we didn't like Rome. We did!

Arles has a number of more unusual historic attractions and we took advantage of their good value multi-site pass. Priced at €11 per person, the Pass Liberte allowed us to visit four monuments of our choice, the Musee Reattu and a further museum of our choice. As it turned out, we only got around four monuments in our afternoon. However the tickets last for a month so I have kept them in case we choose to make a return trip next week. They have two images of Arles monuments on the backs too so I have blu-tacked them up inside Bailey in the meantime.

We began at the Alyscamps necropolis which was world-famous in the

Roman arch at Alyscamps 

Middle Ages even gaining a mention in Dante's Inferno. Begun as a Roman cemetery for well-off citizens, Alyscamps remained in use and fashionable for some 1500 years. The 4th century Saint Genesius is reputed to have been buried there after his execution for refusing to persecute early Christians so the necropolis was a cult focal point for him. There is also a large Campostela sun at the entrance because Alyscamps is on one of its pilgrim routes. Nowadays the site comprises of a fascinating single road of sarcophagi in various states of repair leading to the imposing church Saint Honorat. It isn't at all spooky in daylight and, being there in Autumn, we got to see it pretty much as Van Gogh and Gauguin did in October 1888. There is a Van Gogh trail around Arles with reproductions of his relevant paintings displayed in the places where he painted them.

After a quick stop at the Tourist Office for a map, we paused at the Coffee

Arles Cryptoporticus 

Me coffee shop for a good hot chocolate before Monument Number Two - the Cryptoporticus situated underground below the Hotel De Ville. I think this was my favourite of our four monuments as I have never seen anything quite like it before. Essentially the foundation level of the ancient Roman Forum, this is now several metres below street level and was surprisingly warm. We were able to walk along the Roman porticoed 'streets' and also saw where small shops would have been. The Cryptoporticus extends way beyond the present-day Hotel de Ville although not all of it is open to the public. It was easy to imagine Romans being exactly where we now stood, especially because of the almost complete absence of distracting modernity. The lighting throughout was kept pretty dingy, presumably for conservation reasons, so photography on my phone was difficult and I only achieved this single successful image.

We both liked the relaxed vibe and general tattiness of Arles. There was a

smattering of souvenir shops and we did manage to frequently dodge a large school group, but Arles didn't feel like a tourist town. We could have spent much longer wandering the interesting streets and soaking up the atmosphere, as well as visiting the numerous art galleries which were barely acknowledged. The Van Gogh Foundation was one we considered, but their main exhibition was of David Hockney. Having been underwhelmed by his work at Bilbao's Guggenheim a few years ago, we passed!

Lunch was a cheese and ham crepe with coffee at a cute little cafe called Le Petit Arles. It only seats about a dozen people and we were the sole customers for much of the time which gave us a chance to chat with the owner. He noted down a few other historic French sites we should make a point of visiting so, although we can now tick off Arles, our To See list has still grown.

There isn't much left of the Roman theatre. It is mostly the semi-circular

Arles Roman theatre 

stone seating and a couple of tall columns with a precarious lintel at the back of the stage. Off to the side, piles of decorative stone and column segments are awaiting their reconstruction like a fantastically complicated and heavy jigsaw puzzle! Finance has been agreed, in a budget of over €100 million, for restoration of both the theatre and its neighbouring amphitheatre, but I didn't notice mention of a projected timescale. It is miraculous that anything survives at all though. A signboard showed an 1800s sketch of the area with houses built on it and just a sort of courtyard where the modern stage is now erected. The theatre space is now used again for its original purpose. A large wood clad lighting and sound box has been sympathetically added as well as matching bathrooms. The site is definitely worth a visit but I was glad that we had already visited the completely renovated Sagunt one as that gave a much better idea of the Roman staging and practicalities. Arles' is light on real information.

Does this look like an edge bit to you?

Also lacking in information, especially after the superb audioguide tour of

Arles amphitheatre 

Nimes' one, is Arles amphitheatre. We could see over to the amphitheatre from the theatre and it was just a couple of minutes walk away. Again now used as a bullring, the amphitheatre is perfectly functional and has wood and metal seating bolted to the Roman stone benches. An unusual feature is the three huge medieval stone towers - one at each compass point with the fourth having since been destroyed. In the middle ages, like at Nimes, housing was built inside the amphitheatre making it into an easily defendable fortress town. There's a great view from the top of the tower we climbed. Apparently the Roman top tiers of seating no longer exist so the structure rose even higher than it does today. I was seriously impressed by trying to understand the skills needed not only to create such an incredible building two thousand years ago, but to even imagine it and then replicate the design in so many different locations across an empire.

Perfect day for a walk - Great Ayton to Captain Cook's Monument to Roseberry Topping

Roseberry Topping, the fantastically named local landmark was one of

Monument to
Captain Cook 

the first things we saw when driving up with Bailey last Thursday. The hill has such a distinctive shape and colour. Dave did some research online and found us an almost eight mile walk that combined climbing Roseberry Topping with visiting the nearby monument to local hero Captain Cook so we set out this morning on what became a pretty perfect walk on a pretty perfect day! If you would like to 'virtually walk' along with us, Dave has plotted the route on this map.

We drove to Great Ayton which is a lovely village built alongside a picturesque stream and popular with walkers and tourists alike. James Cook went to the school here, which is now a museum to him, and a statue of him aged 16 stands on the village green. We got lucky finding a parking space by the tourist office. I imagine Great Ayton must be absolutely crammed in high season - it was busy enough today.

Our walk took in varied environments starting with narrow lanes and

Tree tunnel path 

heading gradually uphill along a bridleway track. I loved how the tree roots across our path formed steps and their branches overhung to make a leafy tunnel. A challengingly steep climb through scented pine forest took us up to the height of Captain Cook's Monument which is a tall obelisk originally built in 1827. Many people have chiseled their names and initials into the brick and I don't know if the railings around it are a later addition to prevent more of this, or were always there and people climbed over. The views from the monument are spectacular. We had a clear day and could see for miles across the valley one way and across heather-clad moor another. The earth is pale sand so footpaths are easy to spot. We saw several enticing us to divert towards distant hills and I think, so long as today's stunning sunshine becomes the norm, that we might well be adding a third week onto our planned stay here. It is fantastic walking country!

Roseberry Topping can be seen from Cook's Monument and, likewise, the Monument from Roseberry Topping. I found it interesting that the monument appears as though it would be much bigger when viewed from a distance than it actually is close by! As we walked away, I spotted this plaque commemorating an air crew who crashed in the area in 1940.

We stopped for lunch at Gribdale Gate, a picnic spot with tables and tree

Amelia's tree at
Gribdale Gate 

stumps topped with metal plates inviting visitors to 'place their BBQs here'. I was intrigued by Amelia's Tree which I learned was planted in 2004 but there was no information about who Amelia is/was or why her tree is here. Brief googling was also unfruitful. Do you know the story? We watched some real Boys from the Blackstuff trucks driving up during lunch. There must have been half a dozen lorries full of tarmac waiting around, but nothing else happened so we walked on. The path is one of The Must-Do Walks around here so we saw plenty of other people en route one way or the other. The National Trust owns a large section of the moorland and also Roseberry Topping itself, and there isn't any charge to walk the paths! I wouldn't have been surprised if there was though because a lot of effort has been put in to 'pave' them with large slabs of stone and rock. Presumably this helps against erosion?

Having been proud of our achievement in getting up to the Monument,

Dave before we started our ascent 

we now had another steep climb up Roseberry Topping. We made it, but not without much puffing! Even more superb views awaited us and we could even hee de hea (as Dave's mum used to say). We gazed out for a while before starting back down again. A little way further on is a small stone building that we guessed was a folly but, once we got up close, we learned that it is actually a Shooting Box, commissioned in the late eighteenth century by one Commodore Wilson as a refuge from inclement weather for shooting parties. It was restored in 1983. Grouse are still raised and we saw a young one later in the afternoon. Having been perfectly hidden in a corn field, it heard us coming and leaped into plain sight! We also saw a chaffinch-like bird which turned out to be a Stonechat (or possibly a Whinchat).

The Shooting Box 

Descending Cliff Ridge proved a minor challenge as path choices led off unseen through more pine woods so we ended up taking a roundabout way down, but at least it wasn't too steep. The path then strikes out, Roman straight, back to Great Ayton. I think we passed through what used to be the grounds of a country house as there were large deciduous trees standing apart from each other on neatly mown meadows. Having started walking at noon and stopped for a twenty minute lunch, we returned to the car at four thirty-five.