La Rhune

La Rhune rises to nine hundred and five metres right at the Spanish border, the first real summit at the Atlantic end of the Pyrenees, and it has been regarded as a Basque landmark for a long time; prehistoric stone circles stand on its flanks. A rack railway opened in 1924 climbs from the Col de Saint-Ignace in about thirty-five minutes at around nine kilometres an hour, in the original wooden carriages. Pottok, the small hardy Basque ponies, graze loose on the slopes, along with sheep and griffon vultures overhead. The summit straddles the border, with buildings on both sides, and gives the coast and the range on a clear day.

History

Larrun holds an iconic place in Basque culture: it is covered in dolmens, stone circles and other Neolithic monuments, was sacred in Basque mythology as the home of Lehensugea, the first serpent, and later had a reputation as a meeting place of witches, so that until the 18th century local villages paid a monk to live as a hermit on the summit to keep them away and bring good winds. Near the end of the Peninsular War French troops held it until Wellington's forces drove Marshal Soult's men off the mountain at the Battle of Nivelle on 10 November 1813, and the ruins of fortifications from that time remain. For centuries its paths were smuggling routes, and the mountain became a tourist destination after the Empress Eugénie, holidaying at Biarritz from 1864, made outings to its summit (Wikipedia, Larrun).

What you'll find

• The 1924 cog train - original wooden carriages on a rack railway.
• The pottok ponies - small Basque horses grazing loose on the slopes.
• The border summit - a top shared between France and Spain.
• The coast panorama - the Atlantic and the western Pyrenees on clear days.

When to go

April to October; the train closes in winter and in high wind. Cloud sits on the summit often, and the ticket is not refunded for a view lost to mist. Booking is advised in summer.

Practical notes

Trains sell out in summer and queues are long without booking. The summit is often in cloud with no view. The walk up takes about two hours and is steep.

Nearby

Saint-Jean-de-Luz lies north; Ainhoa is east.