Necròpolis de Cales Coves

The walls around the cove are pitted with openings — graves worked into the cliff face, in plain sight from the rocks below and from the water. Getting there is part of it: 10 to 15 minutes on foot from the car park, the last stretch a rocky descent on paths that have never been surfaced.

Below the caves the water gets very deep in places, with fish over the rocky bottom and octopus tucked under stones. Two inlets open straight onto the sea. Do not stop at the first beach — the rocks carry on, and so does the cove.

• Footwear: the paths in are natural and very uneven, and the back of the cove is rock — wear closed-toe shoes or trainers.
• No facilities: no toilets and no drinking water at the cove, and none nearby — carry what you need for the whole visit.
• The walk: 10 to 15 minutes each way, downhill on rock going in and the same climb back out, with no shade on the path.
• Finds are elsewhere: the objects excavated here are held in the Museum of Menorca; at the cove there are the caves, the boards and the rock.
• With children: the descent is manageable with young children, though it is rock all the way and nothing above the cove is fenced.

You arrive at an unsurfaced car park above the coast, about 850 m from the site in a straight line, and from there everything is on foot: 10 to 15 minutes down to the cove, easy enough at first and rocky at the end. A second free car park sits at Cova d'en Xoroi, about 1.2 km away in a straight line. No road reaches the water.

The nearest bus stops are about 1.4 to 1.5 km off, so arriving by bus adds that stretch on top of the descent. Boats anchor in the cove, which is why the caves are often seen from the water rather than from the path.

Best: early morning or the last hours of the afternoon in the warm months. The cove faces the open sea, the light sits on the water for most of the day, and the walk in and out has no shade to give.

Avoid: the middle of a summer afternoon, when the rock holds the heat and the climb back is the hardest part of the visit. Avoid days with a swell running as well: both inlets open straight onto the sea. In August the island is at its busiest, and so is the anchorage.

Cales Coves is protected as a cultural property, and the caves around the cove are graves. Leave them as found: nothing dug, nothing moved, nothing carried off. Everything excavated here has gone to the Museum of Menorca, so what remains on the ground is the rock itself. Boards at the site explain the necropolis and the Cova dels Jurats.