Poço do Inferno

The Poço do Inferno is a fall of around ten metres on the Ribeira de Leandres, dropping into a pool in a granite gorge on the wooded slope above Manteigas at about a thousand metres. It is a short walk from a small car park at the end of a narrow winding road that climbs from the town through pine forest. In a hard winter the fall freezes - not every year, but often enough that photographs of it as a column of ice circulate and that ice climbers come when conditions allow. The rest of the year it runs normally, thinner in late summer, in a shaded ravine of granite blocks and moss. The road up is single track in places with passing bays, closed by snow in winter, and the surrounding forest was badly burned in the 2022 fires that swept the Serra da Estrela, with the damage still evident.

What you actually see

• The fall - about ten metres into a pool in a granite gorge.
• The winter freeze - the column of ice that forms in cold years.
• The gorge - shaded granite blocks and moss on the slope above Manteigas.
• The fire damage - burned forest from the 2022 Serra da Estrela fires.

When to go

December to April for water and possible ice; the fall is thin by late summer. One to two hours. The road closes with snow.

Honest expectations

The road up is narrow, winding and single track in places - not comfortable in a large vehicle. It freezes only in cold winters, not every year. The 2022 fire damage to the surrounding forest is extensive. Rocks around the pool are slippery.

Nearby

Manteigas is below; the Zêzere glacial valley runs up from the town.