White villages of Grazalema — Zahara, Grazalema and Ubrique

• Pueblos Blancos — the whitewashed hill towns of Cadiz and western Malaga. Lime on the walls, tiled roofs, streets too steep for a coach.
• Pinsapo — Spanish fir, a tree left from a colder climate. Grazalema and the Sierra de las Nieves still hold stands of it.
• Garganta Verde — a deep limestone gorge between Zahara and Grazalema, with one of Europe’s large griffon-vulture colonies. Permit required.
• Puerto de las Palomas — the high pass on the road between Zahara and Grazalema, about 1,357 metres.

Zahara sits above its reservoir at about 511 metres. The whole village is listed. Streets climb in short, uneven stretches; you leave the car below and walk. Santa Maria de la Mesa is the baroque church at the top of the main climb. From there a track goes on to the twelfth-century castle on the rock, sixty metres above the roofs. The view is the reservoir, the park and the road you have just driven. That castle-and-water pair is why the village is on every map of the Pueblos Blancos.

• Santa Maria de la Mesa — map
• Islamic castle — map

A few kilometres toward Grazalema the road passes the start of Garganta Verde. It is a canyon, not a village stop. Walls drop hundreds of metres. Griffon vultures nest on the cliffs. At the bottom there is a huge rock hollow known as La Ermita — a natural chamber, not a church you walk into from a car park. The official trail is steep, often timed at well over an hour each way, and needs a permit from the park all year. From June to mid-October the walking route is usually shut because of fire risk; only organised canyoning may be allowed. Do not treat this as a cave with stalactites you wander into after Zahara.

The same road climbs to Puerto de las Palomas. From the pass you look over the park and, on a clear day, toward the Serrania de Ronda. Pinsapo firs grow on the higher north-facing slopes. The pass is the driving viewpoint. The woods themselves are a separate walk.

• Garganta Verde trailhead — map
• Puerto de las Palomas — map

Grazalema sits between the Sierra del Pinar and the Sierra del Endrinal. It is one of the wettest corners of Spain, which is why the firs survive. The Arabs called the place Ben-Zalema. Streets are narrow and the lime on the corners is so thick that edges look rounded. La Encarnacion is the seventeenth-century parish. San Jose stands on an older minaret. This is the village to sleep in if you want the pass at first light or a park walk the next morning. More on the range: Sierra de Grazalema.

• La Encarnacion — map
• San Jose — map

Along the edge of the Endrinal the road reaches Villaluenga del Rosario, the highest of these villages at about 870 metres. Streets are steep. Water runs under them. Payoyo goat’s cheese is the local name people take home; that story sits on the cheese route. The small bullring is cut into the rock. San Gregorio is the hermitage. Caves and standing stones lie in the fields around the village if you already have a reason to look.

La Manga de Villaluenga is the limestone corridor on to Benaocaz. Just before the village a stretch of Roman road still shows on the way down toward Ubrique. Benaocaz is small and Arab in plan. There are remains of the fortress, a Renaissance parish, a baroque town hall, the Calvario hermitage and a modest sierra museum. The oldest streets — the old Nasrid quarter — are the ones to walk. You do not need every doorway.

• San Gregorio, Villaluenga — map
• Bullring, Villaluenga — map
• Town hall, Benaocaz — map
• Ermita del Calvario — map
• Old Nasrid quarter — map
• Roman road toward Ubrique — map

Ubrique is the large town on the circuit, known across Spain for leather. Workshops still sit in the streets. The oldest quarter climbs the Cerro del Algarrobal. San Antonio, the Capuchin convent and Nuestra Senora de la O are the buildings if you stop. The Roman road back toward Benaocaz is the same stretch you may already have seen from the other end. Leather shopping is the modern reason to pause; it is not a second Grazalema.

• San Antonio — map
• Capuchin convent — map
• Nuestra Senora de la O — map

Toward El Bosque the road passes the rock of Castillo de Tavizna and an old bridge over the Tavizna river. A dirt track before the bridge leads toward the Hurones reservoir if you have time you do not usually have on a coast day. Benamahoma is scattered on the Sierra del Pinar. The Fuente del Nacimiento is the spring the village is known for. The Pinsapar — the Spanish-fir wood — is entered from this side. That walk needs a park permit, like Garganta Verde. It is not an open forest path from the fountain.

El Bosque sits lower, founded around a ducal house. Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe is the parish. The Duke’s mill is the other building people name. The stream is used for trout. Hang-gliders and paragliders take off from a nearby hill when the wind is right. The park visitor centre that handles many walking permits is in El Bosque; if you want Garganta Verde or the Pinsapar, start the paperwork here or online before you travel.

• Fuente del Nacimiento — map
• Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe — map
• River walk, El Bosque — map