Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Beariz

What to see and do in Beariz (Carballiño, Ourense): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 3 Nature · 1 Curiosities

How far each place is from the centre of Beariz

Hillfort of Magros 1.2 km
Marcofán Peak 1.8 km

Towns near Beariz

What to see in Avión 8.7 km · 4 places
What to see in Boborás 11 km · 11 places
What to see in O Irixo 13 km · 6 places
What to see in Forcarei 15 km · 30 places
What to see in A Lama 16 km · 9 places
What to see in Leiro 16 km · 5 places
What to see in O Carballiño 16 km · 10 places
What to see in Cerdedo Cotobade 17 km · 12 places

Spain › Galicia › Ourense › Carballiño › Beariz

What to see and do in Beariz

Beariz
Village
Beariz is a concello of Ourense in the O Carballiño comarca, with about 900 inhabitants across eighteen population entities and three parishes, set at 610 metres on the foothills of the serra do Suído, crowned by Mount Marcofán (940 m), which links to the sierra of O Candán and overlooks, on the way to O Ribeiro, the vineyards of Leiro and Ribadavia. Governed in the Middle Ages by the archbishops of Santiago de Compostela through the Merino family, it preserves a stretch of Roman road and the Roman bridge and mill of Ricovanca, over the river Verdugo, as well as the castro de Magros, a well-preserved site from the castrexo period. Its mountains were mined for wolfram and tin, much in demand during the Second World War. The church of Santa María de Beariz, from the 17th century, stands out.
Mountain range of o Suído en Beariz
Nature
The serra do Suído forms the border between Pontevedra and Ourense: on the Ourense side it extends across the municipalities of Avión and Beariz, where the river Avia rises, and on the Pontevedra side across A Lama, Fornelos de Montes and Covelo. Metamorphic rocks predominate, especially Hercynian granite, with gentle forms and flat areas on the peaks; in Beariz it reaches its highest points at Marcofán, at 940 metres. Its acidic, damp soils also give rise to the rivers Tea, Oitavén and Verdugo flowing westward, which descend in rapids and waterfalls. Halfway up the slopes there survive woods of carballos, cerquiños, bidueiros and acebos; higher up there are pastures, scrubland and gorse (toxo), and the dry-stone chozos that shepherds used for centuries to shelter livestock in summer still survive. It is one of the rainiest areas in Galicia.
Hillfort of Magros
Nature
Iron Age settlement where pottery and hand mills were recovered; the municipality also preserves more than a dozen mámoas and a stretch of Roman road with a bridge over the river Verdugo. The castro is located at 728 metres above sea level, on the foothills of Monte Marcofán, less than a kilometre from the settlement of Magros, in the parish of Santa María de Beariz. It was walled, though today scarcely any standing remains survive beyond a mound that may have served as a parapet and traces of what is interpreted as a defensive tower. Fragments of castro-period and Gallaecian-Roman pottery found on the surface are kept at the Municipal Library, and the site has an access path laid out for visitors.
Marcofán Peak
Nature
At 940 metres it is the highest point in Beariz, ahead of the Alto da Ruza, at 868, and the Cima de Santo Domingo, at 848; wolfram and tin mines were worked at these heights for decades.
The stone shepherd huts of the Suído
Curiosity
The chozos of the Suído are small stone shelters that the shepherds of Avión, Beariz, A Lama, Fornelos de Montes, Ribadavia and Covelo built in the sierras of the Suído and the Faro de Avión, used from the Middle Ages until the last century between June and September, when livestock went up to graze in the high-mountain brañas. Generally square in plan, with gneiss walls up to 80 centimetres thick, they are covered with gable slabs resting on semicircular arches and a layer of earth and moss that insulates the interior, where the hearth, an oven and wall cupboards are preserved. Located at around 900 metres in altitude, on south-facing sheltered slopes, they are usually accompanied by stone pens for the livestock. They are one of the most distinctive pastoral architectures in Galicia.