The Pinsapo of Las Escaleretas

This tree has a natural monument to itself. Andalusia protects whole landscapes as natural monuments and it has declared one for a single fir, the Monumento Natural Pinsapo de las Escaleretas, inside the Sierra de las Nieves. It is 26 metres tall, 5.10 metres round at chest height and 9 at the base, where roots near the trunk come up out of the ground, and the register puts it between 350 and 550 years old. Closed scars where limbs were cut make it look older than that. The place is named for the way the flat stones of the path lie like steps, and the fir grows at the bottom of a bank beside streams, so from the access track all you see is the top of the crown; you have to go down to it. The view from where it stands takes in the Torrecilla peak and the Alcazaba hill. There is a story that it grew on the grave of a woman known for helping travellers and mountain people, whom she treated with plant remedies. The land is public.