GR221 Dry Stone Route

Two trails in one section. The mapped line starts at the ruined Trappist monastery of La Trapa above Sant Elm, climbs onto a dry ridge of low scrub and rock with no shade at all, and then, near the Coll de sa Gramola, drops onto the Ma-10 and walks the tarmac for roughly 2 km. What follows, up over the shoulder of Mola de s'Esclop and down to Estellencs, is the roughest and least trodden ground on the whole route: a thin path on loose limestone that tall grass hides for much of the year, fully exposed, and long. Everything after Estellencs is different walking. From there to Esporles the route runs on marjades, the terraced hillsides above Estellencs and Banyalbufar with their channels, cisterns and stone-paved lanes of Islamic origin, and villages come every 7 km or so. The last climb, out of Esporles over the ridge into Valldemossa, is steep and partly on estate roads through the houses at Son Cabaspre, which is the one place on this section where the route's own managers admit the signing stops.

Logistics: The mapped route begins at La Trapa, not in Sant Elm. Walking up from the village adds roughly 3 km and 270 m of climb that are not counted in this section's figures, on a rocky path with a short step or two where hands are useful.

Navigation: Waymarking is red and white and mostly adequate, but the signs are in Mallorquí, so names read as ses Fontanelles rather than a Castilian spelling, and junctions are often signed to a destination without saying which of two GR lines gets you there. Two places genuinely catch people. The high crossing between Ses Fontanelles and Coma d'en Vidal runs on a thin trod that vegetation swallows in late spring and summer, and it is easier to follow with a track loaded than by eye. The climb out of Esporles through the Son Cabaspre estate is described by the Consell itself as passable but not signposted, so do not expect to be led through it.

The section opens on the wrong side of a big climb. From Valldemossa the route goes up through the holm oaks of the Son Moragues estate and out onto Es Caragolí, the bare limestone shelf of the Archduke's path, where the walking is on cracked rock and cairns rather than a made path and the whole west coast lies below. Then it loses close to 800 m to Deià, steeply and stonily, and the character changes completely. From Deià to Sóller this is the gentlest walking on the trail: cobbled donkey paths and stepped lanes falling through olive terraces almost to the water at Cala Deià, past Llucalcari and over the Muleta headland with its lighthouse above the bay. The last few kilometres cross the Sóller valley floor between orange and lemon groves, into the town and out again along walled lanes to Biniaraix, where the section ends at the foot of the gorge. Fornalutx, which gives the section its computed label, sits about a kilometre off the line; Biniaraix is the village the trail actually goes through.

Navigation: The descent off Es Caragolí is where people go wrong. It is marked by cairns on open rock rather than by a built path, and in cloud the line is hard to hold; if visibility closes in, going back down to Valldemossa is the sound choice rather than committing to a guess. Below Deià the trail is on lanes and cobbles and is well signed, with the usual caveat that a junction may name the destination without telling you which line you are joining.

The mountain heart of the trail, and the reason most people walk it. It opens with the Barranc de Biniaraix, a walled gorge climbed on a broad cobbled staircase of shallow steps that zigzags up between terraced olive groves, shaded and beside running water early in the day, crossing the torrent on footbridges before breaking out into pine and open ground for the pull to the Coll de l'Ofre. Above that the island changes: bare limestone uplands, sheep, the Cúber reservoir in a bowl of the highest peaks, and effectively no shade for the next 20 km. From the Ma-10 the route stays high on a stony path and a made water channel over the Coll des Coloms before dropping to the Tossals Verds refuge, then climbs back through holm oaks and past a spring to the highest pass on the trail at around 1,200 m, treeless and cold. The descent from it is the finest engineered walking here, the restored cobbled zigzags of ses Voltes falling past a scatter of stone snow pits, and it goes on a very long time. Lluc arrives as a wooded monastery valley. After it the trail settles onto the old Pollença road through holm oak forest, easy and shaded, and drops steadily into the orchards of the Vall d'en Marc for a level finish.

Logistics: Between the Ma-10 at Cúber and the Lluc valley there is no road crossing, no village and about 20 km of mountain, most of it high and open. It is the one genuinely committing stretch of the GR 221.

Navigation: The gorge and the Coll de l'Ofre are obvious. Two things catch people afterwards. Near the end of the Cúber leg the signs name the Coll des Tossals Verds as well as the refuge, which lies well below it, and taking the wrong one adds a climb; the refuge is the branch that descends. Separately, a signed variant leaves the main line between Cúber and Tossals Verds and cuts out the Coll des Coloms by way of the Pas Llis, which is steeper and rougher and includes short scrambling secured by fixed chains. Several published GPX tracks for this leg follow it, so check which one you have loaded before you set off rather than at the ledge. From Lluc onward the old Pollença road is well marked and needs no particular skill.

The mountain heart of the trail, and the reason most people walk it. It opens with the Barranc de Biniaraix, a walled gorge climbed on a broad cobbled staircase of shallow steps that zigzags up between terraced olive groves, shaded and beside running water early in the day, crossing the torrent on footbridges before breaking out into pine and open ground for the pull to the Coll de l'Ofre. Above that the island changes: bare limestone uplands, sheep, the Cúber reservoir in a bowl of the highest peaks, and effectively no shade for the next 20 km. From the Ma-10 the route stays high on a stony path and a made water channel over the Coll des Coloms before dropping to the Tossals Verds refuge, then climbs back through holm oaks and past a spring to the highest pass on the trail at around 1,200 m, treeless and cold. The descent from it is the finest engineered walking here, the restored cobbled zigzags of ses Voltes falling past a scatter of stone snow pits, and it goes on a very long time. Lluc arrives as a wooded monastery valley. After it the trail settles onto the old Pollença road through holm oak forest, easy and shaded, and drops steadily into the orchards of the Vall d'en Marc for a level finish.

Logistics: Between the Ma-10 at Cúber and the Lluc valley there is no road crossing, no village and about 20 km of mountain, most of it high and open. It is the one genuinely committing stretch of the GR 221.

Navigation: The gorge and the Coll de l'Ofre are obvious. Two things catch people afterwards. Near the end of the Cúber leg the signs name the Coll des Tossals Verds as well as the refuge, which lies well below it, and taking the wrong one adds a climb; the refuge is the branch that descends. Separately, a signed variant leaves the main line between Cúber and Tossals Verds and cuts out the Coll des Coloms by way of the Pas Llis, which is steeper and rougher and includes short scrambling secured by fixed chains. Several published GPX tracks for this leg follow it, so check which one you have loaded before you set off rather than at the ledge. From Lluc onward the old Pollença road is well marked and needs no particular skill.