Pagoeta natural park (Aia)

Today we are taking you on an excursion to a magical place, full of flowers, mills, ferns, farmhouses, ironworks, fairy-tale like bridges with a rich history.

Our little circular route will allow us to visit an old foundry and the four Agorregi mills, located by the River Altxerri. The main Agorregi complex is preceded by another three mills: Elordi, Arguin Berri and Beheko Errota. These are water works that date back to the 15th century, and were renovated in the 18th century.

We’ll park in the Iturraran Botanical Garden car park. We encourage you to take a walk around to admire the beauty of the flowers and plants that surround you in this magnificent Botanical Garden, before we go on our walk.

Our pleasant little hike will start at the Iturraran Interpretation centre. At the back of the centre, you’ll see a large window, which is where you will find a path with an arrow that points towards ZARAUTZ, we’ll take this path and will start to walk down until we come across the sign for MANTEROLA.

The route, which is less than four kilometres long, is the local footpath SL-Gi 4001, signposted by green and white markings. The official name of the route is: 'Agorregi: burnia eta ura': Agorregi: iron and water.
 

The first part of the path is damp and muddy if it has rained recently but don’t worry, because we then came out onto a road and the mud will fall off as we walk.

We’ll come to a metal gate that marks off the ITURRARAN area, we’ll cheerfully cross this and walk down to Manterola. There we’ll be able to enjoy a delightful walk along the banks of the river and we’ll gently come to the AGORREGI Ironworks, a foundry from 1470 with dams, canals and mills (there are various guided tours from Iturraran).

After your walk we suggest that you have a snack in AIA, a village right up in the heart of Pagoeta. A perfect plan!

DURATION: 1.5 hours
DISTANCE: 3.6 km
DIFFICULTY: low.
FAMILY: Ideal to do as a family.