CR Adventures 4920: Curral das Freiras y Pico Grande - Madeira

This adventure wasn’t meant to happen as we just wanted to explore the Nuns Valley with all it’s beautiful history.

We decided to do this hike though intending climbing to the summit of Pico Grande to enjoy the beautiful views of the Curral das Freirás valley and beyond.

A picturesque hike starting in Curral das Freiras and followed a natural path through the pine forest intertwined with chestnut and eukalyptus trees which opened out to reveal amazing views of the Valley and the other mountains that encapsulated it.
We finally reached the first part of the climb after 621m of elevation gain and after careful consideration decided that we weren’t prepared enough to make the summit of Pico Grande sitting at 1671m some 464m above us as it was a hot day and we had insufficient water to support such an ascent.
Sometimes you have to make these decisions for safety reasons and next time we’ll be prepared to reach the summit.

Now a little bit of information and history:

Pico Grande
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At 1654m Pico Grande is by far NOT the highest mountain of Madeira (this honour goes to Pico Ruivo (1861m) that we did 12 months previous but it stands in the center of the island on a ridge, which forms a small subrange between Madeira's central range and the high plateau Paúl da Serra. Thus, Pico Grande is most likely the best lookout mountain of the island offering great views across the cauldron of Curral das Freiras to the east and the Ribeira Brava Basin to the west.

Curral das Freiras
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The history of Curral das Freiras dates back to before 1462.

Initially, during its early settlement access to the valley of Curral was difficult, and was only attempted by semi-nomadic shepherds and slaves who gained their emancipation or escaped from servitude. These people built small homes, and a small hamlet developed towards the end of the 15th century. More permanent residents began to dwell in the valley shortly after, although the area remained little developed.

The settlement was part of the dominion of João Gonçalves Zarco, who granted its use for cultivation around 1462 to João Ferreira and his wife Branca Dias. These settlers later donated their lands to their grandchild Branca Teixeira, on 22 August 1474. On 11 September 1480, the lands were, once again, sold to the second Captain-Donatório, João Gonçalves da Câmara (Zarco´s son), who in turn donated it the Convento of Santa Clara in the name of his daughter Elvira and Joana who lived in the convent.

During early colonization, the settlement was simply known as Curral or Curral da Serra (English: corral or English: corral of the mountains), because it was known for its extensive pasture-lands, used for grazing cattle and small herds (sheep and goats). The name was subsequently altered, when these lands became the property of the nuns of the Convent of Santa Clara (between 1492 and 1497). There is also some discrepancy; others credit the name change after 1566, when the nuns of the Convent took refuge on these properties, during the French privateer attacks on Funchal.

The lands of Curral das Freiras were part of the parish of Santo António, but, owing to its extreme isolation from this ecclesiastical seat, the religious parish of Curral das Freiras was instituted in 1780. Later, on 17 March 1790, by regal charter (from Queen Maria I, Curral das Freiras became an independent parish, separating from Santo António.