Vaqueiros

About This Place

A remote Alcoutim village in the Serra do Caldeirão with a restored copper-mine museum, sitting between Sectors 3 and 4 of the Via Algarviana.

Vaqueiros is a village of a few hundred people in the Alcoutim municipality, set among the rounded schist hills of the Serra do Caldeirão. It is one of the larger settlements in a very empty part of the Algarve, which means it has the things the surrounding hamlets do not: a café or two, a small shop, a school, and a health post.

Cova dos Mouros

The reason most visitors come here is the Parque Mineiro Cova dos Mouros, a few kilometres north of the village. Copper was mined at this site more than four thousand years ago, in the Chalcolithic, making it one of the oldest known mining sites on the Iberian Peninsula. The park is run as an open-air interpretation centre rather than a polished museum: you walk the ancient workings, see reconstructed prehistoric huts, and there is a donkey sanctuary and a stretch of river for swimming in summer. It is deliberately low-tech and all the better for it. Opening days are seasonal — check before making the drive.

Reaching Vaqueiros without a car is difficult, and the off-road tracks through this part of the serra are half the appeal. A full-day 4x4 trip is the usual way visitors see this landscape, distilleries and abandoned villages included.

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For walkers

Vaqueiros is the end of Sector 3 of the Via Algarviana, a 22.6 km day from Furnazinhas, and the start of Sector 4, a shorter 14.9 km leg to Cachopo. The official trail notes list water as available here, and after Sector 3's dry crossing that is welcome news.

Sector 4 leaves the village heading towards Monchique. Because Vaqueiros has a shop and a café, it is a sensible resupply point — the next comparable stop is Cachopo, and after that the serra gets emptier still.

Getting there

Vaqueiros lies on the EM 507 road network inland from Castro Marim and Alcoutim. Bus services are sparse and geared to school runs rather than visitors; check Vamus Algarve timetables carefully, and assume you will need a car unless you are walking.