Cabo da Roca Lighthouse – Praia da Ursa – Praia da Adraga

This loop around the picturesque coastal village of Ulgueira touches the westernmost tip of the European mainland with its striking lighthouse, before following one of the most stunning stretches of the Portuguese Atlantic coastline featuring sweeping cliff-top views and strikingly beautiful beaches. Running the largely easy to moderately technical trails is great fun, but they are interspersed by very steep, gravelly climbs into creek gorges that rack up the elevation gain and make the route feel longer than its actual distance. The route covers the best views, while mostly avoiding the crowds visiting this popular tourist highlight.

All my runs in this region start in the middle of Ulgueira at the church Nossa Senhora da Conceição simply because I stayed in the quiet, pretty village. A wide gravel track leads from the village to the busy, paved road to the famous Cabo da Roca Lighthouse. Via a narrow trail through dense vegetation one can avoid most of the road to gain beautiful views of the lighthouse towering high above the Atlantic on a windswept cliff top. As expected, the westernmost point of Europe is a pretty popular tourist attraction.

Only a handful of hikers tend to follow the delightful flow trail along the cliff to Praia da Ursa. The beach is definitely one of Portugal’s finest and, as it is a top Instagram destination, the main access route and the beach itself become crowded over the course of the day. Our trail only crosses the popular track briefly and instead takes in the best cliff top views before the climb down into a deep ravine begins.

This is the most technical part of the loop involving a few passages on all fours, though not overly difficult, down into a lush creek valley (no direct beach access from here) – only to climb straight back up onto the opposite cliff. The rewards are amazing views back to Cabo da Roca sweeping across the Atlantic shared by far fewer people.

Flow trails lead along the cliff top to the enormous, impressive sinkhole Fojo da Adraga that drops straight down into the ocean, before the path descends steeply to Praia da Adraga (an alternative wide track leads straight back up to Ulgueira from here). From the beach a sandy trail climbs up the next cliff in a moderate ascent for more perfect flow and striking vistas – the short detour to the cliff top marker is highly recommended for one of the best views across Praia Grande.

At a closed-off staircase (due to rock fall) leading down to fossilized Dinosaur tracks and the beach, a wide track turns inland back to Ulgueira. With Eucalyptus groves, sandy pine forest, a small village, and a final ascent across lush hills, the last kilometers add delightful variety to one of the best routes of the region.