Cova des Coloms

The entrance opens 15 m wide in the side of the gully, and the ceiling inside stands about 24 m above the floor — the reason the cave is known on Menorca as the Cathedral. Sound carries. A word spoken near the mouth comes back off the rock, and the daylight that falls into the central chamber moves round as the sun does. Pigeons have the run of the place, and the floor shows it.

About 50 m in, the chamber narrows into a long corridor. This was a burial ground in the Post-Talayotic period, and the mounds of turned soil either side of the entrance are what illegal digging left behind; on both sides, lines of what may be prehistoric walling can still be picked out.

• No facilities: no toilets at the cave and none nearby, and no drinking water on the route — carry what you will drink.
• Footwear: shoes with grip. The paths are rocky and the last pitch up to the entrance is steep.
• Nothing is lit. Daylight fills the central chamber; the corridor running back from it gets none of it.
• Not for limited mobility: rocky ground, drops and a steep final climb make this a poor choice for anyone unsteady on their feet.
• Waymarking: the turn-off is signposted and part of the way is a private gravel road; a board in Catalan, Spanish and English stands at the junction.

The last stretch is on foot from Es Migjorn Gran, about a mile to the southeast. Park by the cemetery, the closest car park to the cave, then follow the road for some 15 minutes, past the hotel, to a marked sign for the caves. A white path takes over for about 10 minutes; after the first plant sign, the one marked ficus, keep left onto the rougher path, which drops and then climbs again. Part of the route runs along a private gravel road. At the junction for the cave there is an information board, and from there a steep path leads up on the left to the mouth.

The other way in starts at the far end of Binigaus beach — a fairly level walk of about 30 minutes through forest, bearing right at the T junction. You pass another cave on the way; the big one is further along.

Best: early morning or the last hours of daylight in summer, and out of season if you want the path to yourself.

Avoid: the middle of a hot day, and wet weather, when the rocky sections are worse underfoot.

The walk is long enough for the heat to matter and there is no water anywhere on the route, while the cave itself holds the same cool air whatever the season — arriving in it is half the point. It is quiet ground, and you may well pass nobody on the way in.

The cave has been listed as a Bien de Interés Cultural since 1966, and it is an archaeological site rather than simply a viewpoint: the sediment in the central chamber is what survives of the burials, and it has already been dug into illegally. Leave the ground as you find it and take nothing away. Part of the approach follows a private gravel road, walkable on the marked path — stay on it and keep off the land either side.