How to get there
From the Estany de Banyoles Tourist office, follow
route 1 (Tour around the Estany) until you reach the
Church of Santa Maria de Porqueres, the first item of
interest on the route.
1. Turó de Porqueres (0h 00min)
Here you can visit the Romanesque church (XII century)
of Santa Maria de Porqueres and the comunidor
(XVII-XVIII centuries), where people used to ask for
protection against storms and for bad spirits to be
banished. Humans have occupied the hill for a very long
time and remains from the Iberian era can be found on it.
Go back down to the foot of the hill to continue the
route marked out along a wide path that winds
between the fields and the lake, from where you can
smell the sulphurous smells from the Font Pudenta
de Santa Maria. Continue the indicated route until
you reach the foot of the Turó de Can Morgat.
2. Estanyol Nou (0h 15min)
Here you find an area of ponds: the Estanyol Nou, the
most recent one, was formed in 1978; the Estanyol de
Can Siso or Estanyol Vermell (red pond), which sometimes
turns red due to the bacteria populations living
in it; and the spring of the Castellar stream.
3. Can Morgat and the Can Morgat lagoons (0h 30min)
The Can Morgat farm at the top of the hill reminds us
of the legend that traditionally explains the lake’s
origin (“Morgat! Morgat! Go home or you will drown!”).
In the stream with the same name, which has water all
year round thanks to some subterranean emergences,
the last indigenous fish of the lacustrine area, the
mountain barbel and the catfish, have taken refuge.
A Life-Natura project of the EU allowed different lagoons to
be built on the Can Morgat plain between 2005 and 2007.
These are good examples of the restoration of wetlands
which were dried out in the past to increase the farm land,
and which currently allow an improvement of the landscape
and an increase in the biodiversity around the lake. You
can see the aquatic fauna in the Margarit lagoon from a
lookout point. Then, going towards Puig Clarà, you pass
along the very bank of the Aulina lagoon. From here
onwards, the path begins to wind towards the hills.
4.Puig Clarà (1h 20min)
As you climb up, you go through some Mediterranean
pine forests. This is an environment prone to fire, which
destroyed the highest part of the hill in the summer of
2001. In the last stretch of the climb, you can see the slow
recovery of the vegetation formed by sprouts and
thickets, while you go around the summit and begin the
final climb on the northern slope.
The Puig Clarà (315 m) offers an unusual view of the lake
and its surroundings. First of all, towards the east, the Can
Morgat lagoons and the rural patchwork of the fields and
hills of Porqueres can be seen. Further afield, you can see
the depression of the lake and the town of Banyoles, the
Martís plain and, on clear days, the Ampurdan plain up to
Montgrí and the sea, the Gavarres, the Alberes, the Roda
mountains and the Pení. Northwestwards, the mountains
of l’Alta Garrotxa and the Eastern Pyrenees, and the
summits closest to the Transversal Mountain Range, with
the San Patllari mountains and chapel in the foreground.
Go back to the main path and follow the signs of the
route to go down to the Castellar stream and the Tenyers.
5. Les Tenyers (1h 50min)
Between the Turó del Castell and the Frigolet, go through
the Tenyers, a wetland area with swamps and bulrushes.
Before you reach the asphalted road, you will find a small
building on the right where the rust-coloured Castell
spring rises.
6. Hort del Castell (1h 55min)
After a small stretch of road, take a new path parallel to
the Tenyers stream, which will take you through the Hort
del Castell to the end of the route. In this last stretch, you
can see on the right, behind the riverside forest trees, a
dense reed which is permanently flooded.