Hiking Route 5

Llucmajor

Llucmajor – Puig de Ses Bruixes – Llucmajor.

Duration 2h 15 min, 7,1 km Easy, but with a steep ascent.

El Puig de Ses Bruixes, with an altitude of more than 300 m above sea level, is that pointed mountain that stands out for its curious shape, visible from a good part of Llucmajor.

From its summit, you can not only see Llucmajor and its surrounding, municipality where all the excursions of this book are located, but rather almost the entire island of Mallorca. It seems to defy our intention to crown it, while we contemplate its triangular and wild peak from our starting point. Although we will see later that there was nothing to fear, since it is a fairly accessible mountain on its northern slope. In addition, an impressive panoramic view awaits us!

The tour starts at the cemetery of Llucmajor, where there is a very large parking lot. We leave in a northerly direction, directly towards the Serra de Galdent by the camí de Galdent. We will stay on the main road, passing the camí de Buniferri on the right, until we reach the Camí de Ferrutxelles (12 min), where we will turn right. This is a nice rural road, quite quiet, with some houses among the trees. It may break the silence the odd dog bark, alerted by our presence. At the end of the asphalt near an intersection of roads, cross the Camí des Puig (our way back from the left at this point) and continue on the Camí de Ferrutxelles, now on a stony path. Walking here, we have a good open view towards our destination, the Puig de Ses Bruixes, “Mountain of the Witches”, and we can appreciate its strange rock shapes. From this point, it seems impossible to access its peak, but as wego around its base, it appearance changes.

At 25 min we will continue to the right ( the road on the left leads to some farms at the foot of the mountain) still following the camí de Ferrutexelles on a slight descent. Soon we will reach a wide path, the camí de Son Saleta, where we will turn left. It is interesting to note the old ditch on the right side of this dirt road, which once carried water from the Rand mountains to Llucmajor, and disturbed it in small ditches to each home. The walls were raised a few years later, but now it has fallen into disuse. We walk now towards the mountain, and we can see how its form is changing.

The sandy path veers slightly to the left, and we will pass a closed road to the right, near an ld abandoned cement factory. We will continue skirting the foot of the mountain a little to the left. At minutes a road, difficult to distinguish, climbs to the left of our. It is not very obvious, but it can be followed as it links with our climb path a little higher. Anyways, it is better to continue on the main road a few more minutes to find the beginning of the path of ascent to the left, just in front of a water tank. Turning to the left then, we will begin our ascent by this footpath, wide at the beginning but narrowing almost immediately, between bushes of heather and pines. A little further up the path turns to the right, and it is at this point that the other not so obvious path joins ours. Here we will see that someone has placed an arrow of stones on the ground as a guide. Now the path begins to rise more seriously, it is steeper, and we ascend quickly,

The views begins to be wilder, especially towards the mountain of Randa. After going throught a hole in a dry stone wall, we will turn immediately to the left where the path continues upwards. We will see along the route some milestones or piles os stones that guide us between the vegetation and the rocks, since from here the road is something harder to see. We are already more than 200 m high. After a strong but short climb, we will continue to the left where the route surrounds large rocks.

Soon we will arrive at a large pile of stones just below a rock wall; here begins the descent when returning from the top. But first we want to crown the peak, so we will continues towards the goal by entering the rock wall in front of us (it is not difficult), to continue walking and jumping from rock to rock, ( there is some way between them) until we finally reach to the top of this enigmatic mountain, the Puig de Ses Bruixes, at 359 m above sea level (1h 25 min).

And what a wonderful panorama awaits us!- there are open views all around us, if the wather is nice and there is good visibility, of course! At our feet is Llucmajor and its coast, with the Isla de Cabrera in front of a blue horizon. We can see the huge Bay of Palma with the great white city reflected in its waters. To the east, the mountains of Felanitx and all the south coast, and the mountains of Randa. To the north, you can see almost the entire Serra de Traumuntana, from its southwest corner to the peninsula of Formentor. And the great Bay of Alcudia, even the distant mountains of Artà are visible from here on clear days. We will certainly spend some time up here to enjoy all this, and maybe take a picture!

The legend has it that the name of this mountain comes from the witches who lived in nearby caves. When the cars circulated at the foot or that mountain, the mules has great difficulty in pulling them, since the witches rode on top of the mules without being seen and could hardly pull. The inhabitants of the place put in knowledge of king Jaume I the fact, and he went towards the Puig de Ses Bruixes with two chaplains and an altar boy. He climbed with the chariot to the peak and planted a cross. The altar boy meanwhile, died of fear, was placed in a neighboring mountain, that’s why it is called the “Puig de s Escolà” (altar boy). Since thent the witches have not reappeared.

Our return will be backing down the rocks and descending to the pile of stones under the stone wall, about five minutes from the top. If we look a little, we will see a red arrow, indicating three roads, painted on the rock near the piles of stones and here begins our descent. With your back to the top, we will turn left between two rock walls, to follow a well-marked trail. This road goes down quickly among the trees, quite steep at some point and with loose stones at times, although nothing difficult. In just ten minutes we will have made the descent, ending on an asphalt road, where we will turn left. At the end of this road we will turn again to the left to continue on the Camí des Puig towards Llucmajor. When you get to the intersection (where we cross on the outward journey) we turn right to follow the Camí de Ferrutxelles to the Camí de Galdent. Now we will only have to turn left to return to Llucmajor, arriving at the starting point in the cemetery car park, having finished a circular route of 7.1 km in 2 h 15 min.