Serra da Enciña da Lastra

Serra da Enciña da Lastra is the youngest of the natural parks of Galicia: it was declared on 4 April 2002 and takes in 3,151.67 hectares in the municipality of Rubiá, in the Valdeorras district, at the north-eastern tip of Ourense, all but merging with El Bierzo and on the doorstep of Las Médulas. Its uniqueness begins with the rock: where Galicia is granite, here there is limestone. That has produced a steep relief of crags, cliffs and canyons — that of the Sil River is the structural axis of the area — and a subsoil riddled with numerous caves, known locally as palas, among them Pala Cumbeira, Pala da Zorra and Pala Pereda, which make the park a leading destination for caving. The average altitude is around 684 m.

The limestone substrate and the shelter of the canyons have created a Mediterranean environment unusual in Galicia. The holm oak, which gives the park its name, occupies around a third of its area, accompanied by strawberry tree, cork oak, almond, olive and chestnut groves, with wild thyme scrub, lavender and oregano in the clearings. The botanical jewels are the orchids: more than 25 species, over half of those recorded in the whole of Galicia, along with endemics of calcareous soils such as Petrocoptis grandiflora, which tints the crags purple.

The inaccessible cliffs of the canyon make the park a first-order ornithological refuge, with the highest concentration of breeding birds in Galicia: golden eagle, peregrine falcon, choughs and house martins breed on its walls, and the Pena Falcueira viewpoint is one of the best places to watch them. Underground, the caves hold nine bat species, the most varied bat community in the region. To these are added the otter and the Iberian desman among the protected mammals. The park also preserves stretches of the Roman road XVIII, which linked Bracara Augusta with Asturica Augusta, and eight small hamlets within its boundaries, with the visitor centre at Biobra.