A trip with my dog to Las Médulas in Spain

This May, I took a trip with my dog to Las Médulas, a UNESCO World Heritage site of ancient Roman gold mines near Ponferrada in Spain. While there are some parts that require an entrance fee, the whole area is generally free to visit and dogs are allowed on the site.

If you are looking to spend some time in the area, you can find my review on the apartment where we stayed in Ponferrada with a dog here. The apartment was nice, but I would probably suggest to choose a different location as a base.

WHAT IS LAS MÉDULAS

Las Médulas is a historic site where gold-mining activities took place during the time of the Roman Empire. In order to extract gold from the middle layer of the mountains, the Romans used a technique called “wrecking the mountain”. This involved basically pumping large quantities of water into the mountains until they collapse. The water was sourced from several nearby sources through a large network of aqueducts, which were also used to later separate the gold from the rubble.

In 1997, the UNESCO awarded World Heritage status to the site of Las Médulas. I found it to be a very interesting place to visit and learn about the history. The panorama is also beautiful, so make sure to stop by a viewpoint!

HOW TO VISIT LAS MÉDULAS WITH YOUR DOG

In order to get to Las Médulas with your dog, I would recommend a car. There is an official car park near the archeological center. You can also park near the visitor center, but on busy days this is reserved for customers of the adjacent restaurant. To be on the safe, I recommend parking in the official car park and continue on foot from there.

There are different options on what to do in the Las Médulas site, and I will introduce the two main options here.

TAKING A GUIDED TOUR IN LAS MÉDULAS WITH YOUR DOG

From the visitor center, you have the option to join a guided tour which lasts about 2 hours and covers a short trail of 3km. Your dog is allowed to join you on the tour but must be leashed. However please note that dogs are not allowed inside the visitor center. The tour costs 5 EUR, the dog goes free. Tours start at 11:30am and 12:00noon and are in castellano spanish.

We gave the tour a try, and while I do speak Spanish I did not find it too worthwhile. In 30 minutes we had barely moved a few 100 metres and I had gotten a lot more information about chestnuts than I ever would know what to do with.

My dog was also getting a bit stressed about having to sit down at each stop for long explanations. She is also not the biggest fan of crowds, so having all the people around was a bit much for her.

We ended up abandoning the tour and instead walking around the site on our own. For us, I would say this was the right choice as we ended up seeing much more in the same amount of time and were able to focus on what we are interested in.

In my view, the tour is worth it if you are genuinely interested in learning a lot of detailed information about the site (including what they do or don’t do with the chestnuts that grow there!) and you only want to walk a limited amount of a flat trail. Also you must understand Spanish to get value from this.

If you want to move at a faster pace and give your dog a proper walk while you’re there, I recommend exploring the trails of Las Médulas on your own instead.

EXPLORING THE TRAILS OF LAS MÉDULAS WITH YOUR DOG

In my opinion, the best way to explore Las Médulas with your dog is by choosing one of the many trail options and setting off on your own. There are a large number of trails available on the site, and they are well sign-posted. We had no problems following the routes at all.

By walking around the site on our own, we were able to go at our speed and choose the parts that were most interesting to us. There are informational panels available throughout the course, in both Spanish as well as English. So you can still learn a lot about the history and mining operations on a self-guided visit too.

We chose to walk the Valiñas Trail (Senda de las Valiñas) and visiting the Orellán Viewpoint (Mirador de Orellán).

The Valiñas trail is a circular route that starts at the information center. It’s roughly 3.5km long and relatively flat. In my view, it’s overall an easy trail with only minor inclines and rocky parts.

On this route, you will get nice views of the mountains and you will also have an opportunity to see two of the most famous caves in Las Médulas: La Cuevona and La Encantada. At the time of our visit, unfortunately access to the inside of the caves was not permitted due to risk of rockfall. If the caves are your main reason for visiting, I recommend you check in advance whether access is possible.

In my opinion, the Valiñas trail is a great route for a walk with your dog.

The real highlight of our visit was the Orellán viewpoint though. Shortly after starting the Valiñas trail you will have an opportunity to take a steep to the right to walk up to the Orellán viewpoint.

Please be aware that this trail is much more difficult than Valiñas. It is very steep for a prolonged time and also very rocky. To me, it was worth it. However, it was a tough, exhausting climb to the top. My pup took it in stride though. If your fitness is not at least moderate, I would recommend simply visiting this viewpoint by car, which is possible.

Once you do reach the top, whether on foot or by car, you are rewarded by an amazing panorama of the Las Médulas mountains and the surrounding landscape. It really is stunning and absolutely worth seeing.

You also have the option to visit the Galerías de Orellán. Up to 2 dogs at a time are permitted to enter and it costs 3 EUR to visit and you the visit will take you through a network of tunnels until reaching a different viewpoint. It looks worth it, but we did not do it on this visit as we reached the peak during their midday rest. If you want to visit Galerías de Orellán with your dog, make sure to reach during visiting hours which are from 11:00am-1:40pm or 4pm-5:40pm every day except Tuesdays.

If you are still not tired or spending multiple days in Las Médulas, there are many other things to discover, such as the Sumido Lake or the Pedrices Viewpoint. Maybe we will have a chance to come back to Las Médulas and see these another time.

HOW LONG IT TAKES AND WHO IT’S FOR

Walking the Valiñas trail took us just over one hour, with another hour spent walking up the Orellán viewpoint, taking in the view and coming back down again.

As mentioned, the Valiñas trail is relatively easy trail overall. Still I would probably not recommend taking a pram on this trail as there are some rockier parts. The trail up to the Orellán viewpoint however requires a certain fitness level. I found it quite exhausting but still doable. If you are in doubt, I recommend simply visiting that viewpoint by car.

THE BOTTOM LINE

We enjoyed the visit to Las Médulas. It’s a nice place to walk your dog, learn a bit about the history and enjoy some great views. I would recommend foregoing the guided tour and just exploring the area on your own though. Even two hours are enough for a nice visit, but you can also spend more time there to discover other parts. It’s free to enter, so you don’t have anything to lose!