Northeast Subbetica — Zuheros, Priego and the cliff villages

• Adarve — in Priego, the balcony walk along the old wall, looking down on the orchards.
• Cueva de los Murcielagos — the bat cave above Zuheros. Prehistoric paintings and a guided tunnel in the limestone. Not a hole you enter alone.
• Fuente del Rey — Priego’s eighteenth-century fountain: stone figures and basins in a square, not a spring in the hills.

Zuheros is the village that looks as if it grew out of the crag. The castle is Muslim in origin and sits over the River Bailon, at a gap into the park. Streets below are narrow and white. The cave is a short drive above town; you go in with a ticket and a guide. That pair — castle and cave — is the reason to stop, not a list of side chapels.

• Castle of Zuheros — map
• Cueva de los Murcielagos — map

Priego is the largest town on this road and the one with the most to walk. The Villa quarter keeps the old street plan. The castle and keep stand at one edge; the Adarve is the walk along the drop. Fuente del Rey is the fountain everyone photographs. Churches from San Juan de Dios to La Asuncion and San Francisco fill the centre; you will not do them all. Carnicerias Reales is the old butcher’s hall. Caves in the hills above town (Murcielaguina, Cholones) are for people already interested in archaeology, not a first stop from Malaga.

• Barrio de la Villa — map
• Castle — map
• El Adarve — map
• Fuente del Rey — map
• Carnicerias Reales — map

Dona Mencia sits at about 585 metres on the north edge of the park. The thirteenth-century castle and the church of La Consolacion share the high streets; there is a small museum if you have time. Baena, further north, was Boniana to Roman writers. Stretches of wall and towers remain. Olive oil is the modern reason the town is known. Santa Maria, San Bartolome, the convent of Madre de Dios and the old San Francisco house are the buildings on a short walk; pick two.

Luque is the next crag: an Arab fortress later turned into a castle, and the sixteenth-century church of La Asuncion on the square below. Hermitages are scattered through the streets. Fuente Tojar, off the northern boundary, keeps an archaeological museum for finds from the fields around the village. None of these four replaces Zuheros.

• Castle of Dona Mencia — map
• La Consolacion, Dona Mencia — map
• Museum, Dona Mencia — map
• Madre de Dios, Baena — map
• Santa Maria, Baena — map
• San Bartolome, Baena — map
• San Francisco, Baena — map
• Arab fortress, Luque — map
• La Asuncion, Luque — map
• Archaeological museum, Fuente Tojar — map

Almedinilla sits south of that line. El Cerro de la Cruz is the Iberian hill. El Ruedo is the Roman villa. San Juan Bautista is the parish in the white streets. El Salto del Caballo is a spring in the rocks, worth the short walk if you are already here. Carcabuey is the last crag before you turn back toward the park: a thirteenth-century castle and the hermitage of the Virgen del Castillo on the same height, La Asuncion in the village, and two named springs nearby — Las Palomas and Fuente Dura.

• El Cerro de la Cruz — map
• El Ruedo — map
• San Juan Bautista, Almedinilla — map
• El Salto del Caballo — map
• Castle of Carcabuey — map
• Virgen del Castillo — map
• La Asuncion, Carcabuey — map
• Manantiales de las Palomas — map
• Fuente Dura — map