Trepucó

Latitude 39.873607. Longitude 4.265410. About 1 mile to the south of Mahon (Mao) at the far south-eastern side of the Island of Minorca (Menorca) stands the ancient settlement of Talayot de Trepuco - with the megalithic table-shaped Taula monument in the middle of the circular enclosure walls. This prehistoric village-settlement of Trepuco is located less than 1 mile to the south of Mahon town and just a little east of the ME-8 Carretera de Mao to Es Castell, and the through  the Camí Verd.

In the centre of the circular ancient settlement or village (Talayot) a complex of excavated houses surrounded by a defensive wall and watchtower, stands the tallest megalithic monument (Taula) on Minorca. The whole site is thought to date back to the Bronze-Age 2,000-1,200 BC although there is some uncertainty about this. The tall granite megalithic slab-stone stands at 4 metres or 13 feet high with a second huge retangular-shaped slab on top that is 3.75 metres or 12 foot 4 inches long by 1.84 metres or 6 feet wide. The monument is typically shaped like a letter “T” and what looks to many like a table – perhaps in the form of a table-tomb. More than likely it was set up as a shrine or altar to the dead or perhaps rituals to the gods took place here. The burials would have originally lain beneath or around the taula.

The talayot settlement-cum-village is enclosed by low defensive, drystone walls, but originally they would have been much higher. A watchtower would have stood along the walls – this is now not easy to make out. The site consists of a number of prehistoric houses forming the settlement that have been excavated, as well as some grassy mounds, that as yet, have not been looked at. There are five houses here that are made of rough, un-mortered dry stone-walling and at intervals tall slabs which acted as roof supports indicate their original height. Each house is different in shape, layout and style. Today the rough walls of these ancient buildings only stand to a quarter of their original height. Also, two excavated rooms adjoin the houses and a smaller talayot house is built onto the defensive wall. It seems obvious that there has been much robbing-away of stonework over the centuries here. The grassy mounds have not yet been excavated archaeologically, and it is unclear what they are, but it  is likely they are houses, rather than for the burial of the dead. This will only be known when a proper excavation is done.

Urospermum Dalechampii

Urospermum dalechampii, common name: Smooth Golden Fleece, is a perennial herbaceous Mediterranean plant belonging to the genus Urospermum of the Asteraceae family.

The flower heads are yellow sulfur, about five centimeter wide. Involucral bracts vary from seven to eight. Blooms are abundant throughout the Spring. The flowering period extends from March through August. The long, beaked fruit is an achene, and has a feathery, slightly reddish pappus.

According to a very interesting blog I follow named:  http://anentangledbank.wordpress.com/  the plants name Urospermum is from the shape of the seed, and dalechampii is because it was described by the botanist and doctor Jacques Dalechamps (1513-1588) in his Historia generalis plantarum in 1586,

 Jacques Dalechamps (1513-1588)

Cami de Cavalls. Cala Galdana to Binigaus.

Walking along the coastal path called Cami de Cavalls. About 10 kilometers from Cala Galgana, in the South Coast towards Binigaus and Santo Tomas.

Horse riding at Cala Mitjana.

The first swim of the year. Not a good idea. Water was freezing!

Trifolium Stellatum. 

This Mediterranean plant has short stems and soft hairy leaves and the small white flowers which bloom in Menorca in April and May are held together in rounded heads and each is surrounded by a crimson star-shaped calyx. When in fruit the flower heads with their white soft hairs, look even more like clusters of stars against the backdrop of beach pebbles. The whole plant is prostrate and forms large mats on the upper beach. This plant known as Starry Clover is very rare in the UK. It Flowers in June on the shingle of Shoreham Beach, its only location in the British Isles. This small naturalised ground plant has been known from this area for two centuries (discovered in 1804).

El Fonduco

1930's Horse ploughin at El Fonduco. The house that once was the home of Admiral Collingwood and that it became the Hotel del Almirante some decades later.