Cabo Espichel

Cabo Espichel is the south-western tip of the Setúbal peninsula, a treeless limestone headland ending in cliffs over 130 metres high with nothing but the Atlantic beyond. On it stands the Santuário de Nossa Senhora do Cabo, an eighteenth-century church flanked by two long ranges of pilgrims' lodgings facing each other across an open square - built for crowds that no longer come, and now largely empty and weathered, which gives the whole place its abandoned, end-of-the-world atmosphere. The cliffs below hold sauropod and theropod footprints in beds tilted almost vertical by later movement, so trackways made on a Jurassic tidal flat now run up a cliff face; the legend that the Virgin arrived here on a mule, whose hoofprints are shown in the rock, attached itself to those tracks. There is a lighthouse and a small chapel on the edge.

What's there

• The sanctuary - an eighteenth-century church with two long ranges of empty pilgrim lodgings.
• The dinosaur tracks - Jurassic footprints in beds now tilted up the cliff face.
• The cliffs - over 130 metres of limestone with open Atlantic beyond.
• The legend - the mule-hoof story attached to the fossil trackways.

When to go

Year-round; the wind is constant and strong. Two to three hours. Late afternoon light suits the sanctuary square.

Practical notes

Fiercely windy and completely exposed. The sanctuary buildings are derelict in parts and mostly closed. Cliff edges are unfenced with long drops. The dinosaur tracks are hard to make out without knowing where to look, and the best trackways are not safely accessible.

Nearby

Sesimbra is north-east; the Arrábida park runs east along the coast.

Key facts