Cueva de la Pileta

Visited 26 Sept 2012.

West of Ronda, marked on most road maps and easily located with a big sign from the road to a parking area with info boards.

A series of uneven and slippery-when-wet stone steps lead from the car park up to the cave entrance and ticket hut (which also serves drinks in season), where there is a covered waiting area. The entrance fee varies by total group size – 8 euros pp reducing to 7 if there are more than 15 people on a tour. The maximum tour size is 25.

By 4pm, a group of 20 or so had gathered and the entrance was unlocked so we could all move into a foyer area, where the guide lit and distributed battery lanterns for the visitors, and filled his paraffin lamp. I had a small head torch which came in handy, though your own torch is far from essential. The tour was mainly in Spanish with a few words of English added; one of the other visitors was leading a group of Scandinavian and German tourists, and he kindly translated a fair amount of info into multiple languages for everyone.

The tour lasts just over an hour, progressing through the cave system looking at the rock formations, explaining history and discovery, with fabulous cave paintings along the way. The end point is the painting of a huge fish .... then a faster walk back along the same route to the entrance.

There are lots of steps within the caves, so I would recommend to reasonably sure-footed visitors. On the way back, we crossed with the next tour starting .... which included family groups, one with children of around 2 and 5 years, and another with screaming baby in papoose .... the latter changed their minds and left .... it’s really not a visit for little ones imo.

Please note – no photography past the entrance area, you will be asked to leave if you try to sneak a few shots. This may be to keep the light levels reasonably constant, but also repeated camera flashes would have ruined the ambience of the visit.

Some impressive cave art here, and a fine collection of finds (including bones and tools) are on display. No photographs are allowed within the caves, but they do sell postcards.

In the summer months the caves are closed between 1 and 4 pm, so make sure you don’t arrive just as they close for lunch. We arrived just in time for the last tour of the morning session at 1 pm having just been to the Ronda Dolmen. Well worth the visit it was too. The Guide was knowledgable, and although he spoke primarily in Spanish he did ensure that we as the only English speaking folks on the tour were not left out. The parafin lamps provided make the tour all the more atmospheric.

There are numerous cave paintings, the most impressive of which is an image of a fish. There’s also images of buffalo and human figures. The limestone cave formations are impressive too, and they even speculate that a formation that they call “The Organ” was used to make music. Certainly striking the long narrow collumns of limestone formations created a wonderful resonating sound.