Prades: the red town and its stone arch.

Prades is the Vila Vermella, the Red Town: almost the whole village is built from the reddish sandstone of the mountains, and by mid-morning, with the sun, the stone glows. It is a quiet, inexpensive Sunday, an hour from Tarragona and another from Lleida. In the morning you climb to a hermitage wedged into a cave in the cliff, come down to walk round the old town from gate to wall, have the inn's set lunch and, in the afternoon, walk for half an hour to a natural arch of red stone.

The Day, Hour by Hour

9:15 · Departure. From Tarragona or from Lleida, an hour, with the last kilometres winding: Prades is at 950 metres. Leave the car on the streets outside the wall: inside, the streets are narrow and steep.

10:30 · The l'Abellera hermitage. First go by the tourist office, at Carrer Muralla, 3: it is open every morning and gives you the key to the enclosure, with a €20 deposit. The hermitage is about 2 km away, on the Capafonts road, with a free esplanade a few metres off. It is a chapel from around 1570 tucked into a cave at the foot of a cliff, with a double-gable bell tower. The name comes from the bees: according to the legend, a shepherd found the image in a holm oak where he went to look for honey, and the Virgin's crown carries fifty silver bees. She is the patron saint of Catalan beekeepers. From the enclosure you see the valley and, in the distance, the plain. Return the key before the office closes at midday.

12:00 · The red town. This is route 1 of the town council's fountains: a 1.1 km circuit with 16 metres of ascent. It starts at the gate on the square, with the boundary cross and the machicolation above, enters the arcaded main square, with its Renaissance red-stone globe-shaped fountain, passes Santa Maria and finishes following the wall, which gives the old town its triangular shape. Prades was a market town from 1200 and the seat of the Counts of Prades. An hour without hurrying.

13:45 · Lunch at Fonda Espasa. On Plaça de Sant Roc, where the coach stops, two minutes from the main square. It is a hotel and restaurant in the same house. In summer it is open every day; in winter, only at weekends. Book on 977 868 023 or 654 367 915.

16:00 · La Roca Foradada. Leave the tourist office along Carrer de la Caballa, between mulberry trees, pass the hermitage of Sant Antoni and its fountain, go up the tarmac track and take the signposted dirt path. It is 1.5 km with little ascent to the arch, opened by erosion in the red rock, with a picnic area and a small pool. Under an hour there and back, plus time for photos.

17:15 · Return. Drive down while it is light: the mountain road has no lighting. In Tarragona or Lleida around a quarter past six.

What to Order

At Fonda Espasa you come for the inn's set menu: home cooking that changes every day. Ask what is on when you book, especially if you have allergies or do not eat meat. Prades is potato country, the star of the Festa de la Pagesia in October, and in autumn mushrooms and chestnuts appear on the menus in the mountains. For coffee, the terrace of DPrades Gastroteca, on the main square, opposite the fountain; it also has a shop of local wines.

With Children and Dogs

The whole plan suits children: the old town is short, the cave hermitage surprises them and the path to the Roca Foradada is the one the council suggests for families, with a picnic at the end. If they are over six and want action, swap the Roca Foradada for Prades Aventura, with bridges between trees, a climbing wall and zip lines of more than 100 metres, always with an instructor. Dogs can do all three walks, on a lead.