Serra do Cume

The Serra do Cume is the eastern rim of an old caldera on Terceira, and the road runs along it to a viewpoint at around five hundred metres looking down over the plain towards Praia da Vitória. What you see is the reason to come: the entire lowland divided into small irregular fields by dry-stone walls built from cleared basalt, thousands of them, in a pattern that reads from above as a green quilt with black seams, cattle grazing throughout. Terceira runs on dairy, and the walls both cleared the ground of stone and provided shelter and boundaries. On a clear day the whole eastern half of the island is laid out, with the airport, the bay and the coast. It is a roadside stop of twenty minutes, and there is a second viewpoint on the other side of the ridge looking the opposite way.

What you actually see

• The field pattern - thousands of dry-stone walls dividing the plain into a quilt.
• The dairy landscape - cattle grazing across the whole lowland.
• The caldera rim - the ridge itself, the eastern edge of an old crater.
• The two viewpoints - one over the plain, one facing the other way.

When to go

Year-round; clear days show the pattern best, and low sun brings out the walls. Thirty to sixty minutes as a roadside stop.

Honest expectations

Cloud sits on the ridge often and hides everything. Very windy and exposed at the top. Facilities amount to a car park. The road up is narrow with cattle grids and livestock.

Nearby

Praia da Vitória is below; Biscoitos and the north coast pools are west.