Monte Buciero lighthouses trail

Santoña's big trail: 12 km in a circuit along the coast of Monte Buciero, from the Fort of San Martín, at the end of the promenade, between cliffs and one of the best-preserved coastal holm oak woods on the Cantabrian coast. It passes the Mazo fort, the Pescador lighthouse and the descent to the Caballo lighthouse, hundreds of steps down to the sea. Medium-to-hard difficulty. The town council has temporarily closed access to the Caballo lighthouse because of landslides of earth and rock: check santona.es to see whether it is still closed before you go.

The route

It is the council's Trail 1, "Lighthouses and Cliffs". It starts next to the Fort of San Martín: some steps lead up to a road and, turning left, you pass the Alta and Baja de Galbanes batteries. The asphalt becomes a stony track that gains height above the cliffs among half-abandoned quarries, and after a kilometre you reach the fort of San Carlos. Next comes the Peña del Fraile, with cavities that hold prehistoric remains; local legend says a salvo from the mountain's cannons knocked off the "friar's" head.

After the Casa de la Leña, a crossroads leads right towards the Caballo lighthouse and the San Felipe battery. Then come about two kilometres of woodland of holm oaks, strawberry trees and bay laurels, and a descent in sharp bends to the Pescador lighthouse, which was first lit in 1864 with an olive-oil lamp and rebuilt after a cyclone in 1915. The return passes Berria beach, the Dueso prison, a former Napoleonic fort, the Águila and La Cueva batteries, the Mazo fort and the Casablanca viewpoint, with views over Santoña and the marshes, before closing the circuit at the Fort of San Martín.

The Caballo lighthouse

The descent to the lighthouse is the stretch that makes the trail hard. In its information sheet the council speaks of some 700 steps, 800 if you go down to the sea, and elsewhere of 763; the access is rough and the climb back is long. The lighthouse came into service in 1863 and is now abandoned. At the moment that stretch is closed because of rockfalls, with no reopening date published, and the santona.es home page marks it as closed access. If you want to see it, the boat trip to the Caballo lighthouse shows it from the sea, and the fort has a virtual-reality descent on its opening days.

Before you set off

The council does not publish the duration or the ascent; allow a good part of the day if you do the full loop with stops. Bring mountain footwear, water and something to eat: there is nowhere to buy anything on the mountain. The council's sheet offers the GPX track and the route on Wikiloc and Google Maps, useful because there are several junctions. With small children it is better to do only the first stretch as far as the fort of San Carlos and come back.

For maps and the state of the trail, call in at the Santoña Tourist Office, on Calle Santander. When you finish, the promenade takes you back to the centre.