Sendero Local ´Gerald Brenan´, Yegen

Yegen is one of our neighbouring Alpujarras villages. It has become known by the hispanist Gerald Brenan who gave an affectionate portrait of his life in this village in his book ´South from Granada´. Gerald Brenan was twenty-five when he first arrived in Yegen in 1919. He described vivedly all aspects of village life and gave a rich account of Spain´s vanished past. Don Geraldo loved to wander around in the countryside around Yegen with its views across to the Contraviesa and the sea. One of his favourite afternoon strolls was put into a waymarked circular walk of 3,5 kilometres a few years ago. This ´Sendero Local de Gerald Brenan´ passes wash houses, fountains, ruined mills and a large flat-topped outcrop, called Peñon del Fuerte or Piedra Fuerte. Since they renewed the green-and-white waymarking in 2006, they changed the direction of the walk to anticlockwise. To start the walk you therefor now need to ignore the old small wooden arrows on the walls that read ´Ruta Gerald Brenan´. Instead you go down to the bottom of the village where you find the Fuente Camellona and the first wooden marker post with a white arrow and green-and-white stripes with the name of the walk. At the end of this walk you pass the house he lived in. It can be recognized by a plaque dedicated to this hispanist that “universalized the name of the village, and the customs and the traditions”. When you continue up to the main road, you will see opposite the bus stop a house with number 16. This used to be a ´posada´ or village inn, where ´El Inglés´ stayed before he moved into his house. The town hall is in the process of buying this place with the idea to convert it into a Casa Museo in honour of Don Geraldo.

Related keywords: Alpujarras, Sierra Nevada, wandelen, wandelingen, trektocht, hiking, trekking, Berchules, B&B, hotel, wanderungen