Smugglers and the best landscape of Minorca

As it has happened in other corners of this country, the proximity of the sea and a long and often precipitous coastline has favoured smuggling. Already during the XVIII century, under the British rule, this was a quite lucrative and widespread activity.

In the XX century, smugglers basically dealt with tobacco. Often times they have used caves and natural shelters, to hide their merchandize. In other occasions they built man-made hiding places in the woods or farmlands. If this was the case the smugglers used to pay a certain amount of money to the owner of the estate so that he tolerated the transit of contraband. Some of these stores even had tiled floors and walls, so that tobacco was kept dry.

Our interest in smugglers doesn’t have anything to do with their illegal activities. We are just interested in the routes they opened from the coast, because they often run across the most beautiful and unknown landscape of the island. Our guides, from the Audax Sports & Nature Centre, will show the smuggler’s way close to Cala Galdana, which runs for about 12 Km. Besides enjoying the feeling of being an outlaw, just for a while, you will be able to get in touch with the natural assets of the island with its rich and varied flora and fauna.