sals

Signposted off the main Mao to Cuitadella Road, about 3km before Alaior and very near the navetas Rafal Rubi and l’Argentina Oriental. When you turn off the main road, after a sharp bend to your left, you’ll see a copse of trees – the monument is here. There are two gates, and through the second one you’ll see the blue “menorca monumental” bin showing you that you are in the right place. If you get to some of the very nice villas on your right, you’ve gone too far!

On the north west coast of the island; approaching Cuitadella from Mao on the main road, turn left as signposted just on the outskirts of Cuitadella and follow the road to the coast.

When you reach Cala Morell, turn left at the roundabout at the top of the cliff and head down towards the beach – the necropolis is on your left as the road bends right, and there are parking places just before that on the right, overlooking the beautiful bay. Open access, no fee.

It was quite busy when we visited, though many fellow visitors weren’t venturing into the caves at all.

If you are picking up a hire car at the airport, or indeed dropping one off, spend a few extra minutes checking this out, right next to the car park! The site was removed and restored as Jane says, to make room for the runway extension, but if you go to the south end of the runway (by road of course!) you’ll find what was left behind – also posted as an “original location“.

As you come out of the airport, you can’t really miss Biniparraxtet (also known as Biniparraxtet Petit), relocated and restored in order to extend the runway... but not all of it was moved! A wrong turning (at Binissafullet) meant we ended up right under the flight path at the south end of the runway, and I spotted one of those blue signs....

Hidden behind a huge wire fence, there’s the remains, and there’s a talaiot a few metres NNE, almost scraping the landing gear of the planes coming in.

There’s a second, ruinous talaiot just behind the impressive one at Torrellonet. The site marked by a blue menorca monumental sign, but what appears to be an entrance has been blocked, or repaired! Round the back of the main talaiot, there were a couple of silos with added junk.

We thought we’d be polite and ask at the farm if it was OK to cross the fields opposite and check out the remains of a house, listed as a possible sanctuary in TME; it seemed the only word we had in common with the elderly lady in the farmyard was “Torrello” but we guessed she’d got the gist of what we wanted and wouldn’t mind us going ahead.

Recommendation: instead of taking the direct route to the house, over some wobbly walls, go to the left and keep the copse on your right – there’s gates!

If you’ve got the AA map of the island, beware, this is marked on it, but in the wrong place – go west to the next junction, and you’ll find the poblat right alongside the road.

It’s hard to work this site out in places – there’s the obvious taula and talaiot visible from the road, but behind them there’s a jumble of stone from the surrounding houses. The information board was trashed when we were there.