The Mountain Range O Courel is a place to come to without rush, to discover its ample modesty found in its flora and fauna, ancient villages hanging on by a thread, walking trails, river systems and its continuing, though disappearing, links to its traditional ways of work and living. Located south of the Pedrafita do Cebreiro pass connecting Galicia to the rest of Spain, the Serra do Courel range runs on a northeast-southwest axis creating a natural border and barrier separating Galicia from León.
Serra do Courel
Serra do Courel
A place where you can dream of paradise
Welcome to the mountain range of slate's villages
The Mountain Range O Courel is a place to come to without rush, to discover its ample modesty found in its flora and fauna, ancient villages hanging on by a thread, walking trails, river systems and its continuing, though disappearing, links to its traditional ways of work and living. Located south of the Pedrafita do Cebreiro pass connecting Galicia to the rest of Spain, the Serra do Courel range runs on a northeast-southwest axis creating a natural border and barrier separating Galicia from León.
From the north, one enters the Serra do Courel high along an open ridge. Looking south the range's distinctive outline fills the skyline. Twisting roads along rounded, steep sided mountains separate you from the range and lead into the Courel's heart. At first open, thick forest soon mitigates the views and each curve reveals a new facet of the Courel : rushing cascades, large handsome brown cows on the way to and from pasture, stone mills, centenary chestnuts. Canals chiseled into the hillsides, fed by year-round springs, water green pastures blanketing the plunging slopes. Spreading out around the range for 193 sq km, the Folgoso do Courel township (Lugo province) contains some 50 villages hanging off of the hillsides and some few lie at river level. Today, in 2009 roughly 1290 people populate the villages in contrast to 6957 inhabitants in a 1860 census.
The Town Council of Folgoso do Courel its placed on the southeast of Lugo´s province, with a extension of 193 km2 (but only mean a 1% of the Galician's surface,here be concentrated a 40% of superior plants of the Comunity), constituted by mountain ranges in direction NE-SO, between them running many rivers and creeks, the most important is the Rio Lor, that formed a vertigo picture with narrow valleys and vertical hillsides culminated for tops like Pía Páxaro (1.611 m.), Formigueiros (1.639 m.), Escrita (1.455 m).
The confluence gives the climatic tendencies mediterranean and eurosiberian, beginnin the ocean climate of the town, in mountain climate, creating strong diferencies of weather, of weather to summer.
The alternate of ground and the damp climate of the mountain make a rich variety of floral distributed in altitude scale. Them, in the tops we find piornales, under 1.400 m. beech, yew, birch, oak, holly; and down chestnuts, ilex,strawberry trees, moors. With this natural paradise combinates fauna formada por wolfs, foxs, roe deer, wild boar, genets, badger, hares, rabbits, squirrel, marten, stoat, red partidge, eagle owl,...
The alternate of ground and the damp climate of the mountain make a rich variety of floral distributed in altitude scale. Them, in the tops we find piornales, under 1.400 m. beech, yew, birch, oak, holly; and down chestnuts, ilex,strawberry trees, moors. With this natural paradise combinates fauna formada por wolfs, foxs, roe deer, wild boar, genets, badger, hares, rabbits, squirrel, marten, stoat, red partidge, eagle owl,...
Map of Courel and its environment
