Cabeça do Velho

The Cabeça do Velho is a granite tor on the northern side of the Serra da Estrela above Gouveia, and the reason it is signposted is simple pareidolia done unusually well: weathering has cut the block into a profile with a brow, a nose, a mouth and a beard, so that from the road it reads as a bearded old man's head looking out over the plateau. Granite here weathers along its joints into rounded blocks and tors across the whole range, and this one happens to have gone the right way. It is beside the N232 with a small parking area and a short path, taking twenty minutes, and it sits at around 1,300 metres with wide views of the Estrela's boulder-strewn upper ground. The road across the plateau connects Gouveia to Manteigas and Torre and is one of the good mountain drives in Portugal.

What you actually see

• The profile - a granite tor weathered into a bearded face in profile.
• The jointing - the same weathering that produced tors across the whole range.
• The plateau - boulder-strewn upper ground of the Estrela at around 1,300 metres.
• The road - the N232 crossing between Gouveia, Manteigas and Torre.

When to go

April to October; the road can be closed by snow in winter. Thirty to sixty minutes. The face reads best from the marked viewing angle.

Honest expectations

From the wrong angle it is simply a rock - the resemblance depends on where you stand. A roadside stop of twenty minutes, no more. Exposed and windy at 1,300 metres. Parking is a handful of spaces.

Nearby

Gouveia is below; Manteigas and the Zêzere valley are south-east across the plateau.