Torretrencada

The taula is still standing: two stone slabs set as a capital T. Walk round to the back and a stone pilaster comes into view, braced against the upright. It makes this one of the best preserved taulas on Menorca, and one of the easiest to recognise.

Around it lies the rest of a settlement, spread among wild olive trees. There is a talayot, the conical stone tower of the period, and hypogea cut as artificial burial caves. The footings of houses show where people lived, and a hypostyle hall, its roof carried on pillars, may have served to collect water. Occupation here ran on into the Middle Ages. Torretrencada is one of the sites that make up Talayotic Menorca on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

• No toilets at the site, and none nearby.
• No drinking water nearby either: bring your own, more so on a summer day.
• Neither the parking area nor the entrance is wheelchair accessible.
• It suits children: a tower, a T-shaped monument and rock-cut burial caves to find.

Torretrencada lies in the countryside of Ciutadella, and the practical way in is by car. A parking area sits about 34 m away in a straight line, and from there a short walk on foot brings you into the settlement, with wild olive trees on either side of the stones.

The nearest bus stop, Camí de Macarella, pq 7, is about 2.4 km away in a straight line. Arriving by bus means a walk of at least that distance each way.

Best: early morning or late afternoon, when a low sun throws shadow across the stones and picks out the shape of the taula.

Avoid: the middle of a summer day.

The settlement is open ground with no water and no toilets nearby, and the wild olives give only patches of shade from the midday heat.

Torretrencada is protected heritage, one of the sites of Talayotic Menorca on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Keep off the taula, the talayot and the walls, and leave every stone where it lies: the structures are prehistoric dry-stone masonry.