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ACCEDER

Sendero Molino del Batán

If we accept the proposal that is made to us with this path, we will discover wild places and representative landscapes of Despeñaperros, where the pulse of nature -flora, fauna, hydrography, geology ... - still beats strongly, and human work is perceived more as historical challenge in pursuit of coexistence rather than domination.

Difficulty

Low

START POINT

From Jaén, on the E-05 highway, take exit 259 to Santa Elena, cross the town and go to the Puerta de Andalucía Visitor Center, where you take the JA-7.102 road towards Miranda del Rey. You have to pass the hamlet of the village without leaving the road until you find a crossroads 150 meters away, where the path begins.

TOTAL DISTANCE (IN KILOMETERS)

20.7

ESTIMATED RUN TIME

2 hours 50 minutes

Type of firm

Track, lane or path.

SLOPE

980 m

980 m

DIFFICULTY. ASSESSMENT ACCORDING TO METHOD MEASURE

1

MEDIO.

Severity of the natural environment

2

Itinerary

Orientation in the itinerary

2

Displacement

Difficulty moving

2

EFFORT.

Amount of effort required

TIME OF THE YEAR

All year

SIGNALING

MUNICIPAL TERMS BY WHICH IT RUNS

Santa Elena Norte

RECOMMENDATIONS

It is recommended to bring drinking water and suitable clothing and footwear. Make sure the drinking water from the sources. Be careful with road traffic. This trail can be done throughout the year. In summer, due to the special altitude conditions, the insolation is very strong and requires significant sun protection.

POINTS OF INTEREST

- Remains of mills and hydraulic mills of medieval origin.
- Village Miranda del Rey.
- Las Nogueras School of Nature.
- Barranco del Arroyo del Batán.

DESCRIPTION

We will find vestiges of industrial facilities (mills or mills), of medieval origin, moved by the force of running waters, a type of renewable energy that in past times was one of the few available, and that today is valued again.

Continuing for about one hundred and fifty meters along the JA-7.102 road, which has taken us to Miranda del Rey from the E-05 highway, we will find a crossroads that is where we start our path (see on the map). Here we will choose the track that goes to the front, heading west, and we will walk without complications through a plain.

After traveling six hundred meters we will cross the Las Bañas stream, which converges very closely with that of de la Noguera to form the Campana River. We will approach this second stream and walk along its left bank for about seven hundred meters, heading northwest, until we reach the Cortijo de la Noguera, which today has become a nature school. In four hundred meters we reach a hill where there are two firebreaks that serve as the boundary of the Natural Park, where there is a barrier that we must cross while maintaining our course. The track is flanked by eucalyptus trees, which will be replaced later by pine trees, also repopulated. Holm oaks and other autochthonous plants grow under these artificially introduced masses, as if ready for a particular reconquest. The path makes a vee to cross the stream of La Noguera, which we followed earlier, after which we reach a port with some cork oaks around it. From here there are views towards the gully of the Batán stream, to which we are heading, thus being able to see the paths that lie ahead. Paths, plural, because first we will go down the slope obliquely to our right, next to the Salto de Padilla ditch, until its derivation. The stream is covered by a riverside forest in which ash trees and alders abound that invite us to stop to enjoy its placid environment and rich nature, of which a water source is part with a curious anticline (convex folding) crowning it.

Between rockrose and pilgrimage we will retrace the nine hundred meters to the crossing of the port, from where we will go down again, but now along the main path that is to our left, heading southwest. There are good views of the Sierra de los Calderones and Cerro de la Estrella to the north; and to the west the valley that forms the ravine of Doña Dama and the rope of the Stairs.

Our path, after crossing the canal again, runs parallel to the stream, where we will be able to see the ruins of old mills, including the one that gives its name to the path, the Molino del Batán and another more flour mill built at the same time. In a little more than a kilometer of road, we will reach a sharp curve, after which we arrive at the bottom of the ravine where there is a cistern that stores water for fire vehicles and a fountain, this being the end of the path.

Source of information

Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development. Junta de Andalucía