Madeira's only plateau, at about 1,500 m, in the municipality of Ponta do Sol: on clear days the south and north coasts can be seen at once, otherwise the greens of nature dominate. High-altitude flora with endemics such as the thyme Thymus micans, important birdlife; it is the island's most important aquifer-recharge area, from which levadas and trails set out — to Rabaçal (PR 6.5, 13.1), Fanal (PR 13), Folhadal (PR 17) — with wind farms, forestry posts, leisure areas and shelters. Bica da Cana (1,620 m) and Pico Ruivo do Paul (1,640 m) are its high points; PR 27 (closed) reads the traces of the plateau glacier that covered Paul da Serra about 25,000 years ago. Fog, wind and cold possible in any season.
The island's only plateau
Aquifer recharge
Bica da Cana 1,620 m
Glacial traces
Levada starts
Altitude
1,500 m
GPS
32.73384, -17.05013
🧭 Getting there
The place stands 1,568 m from the locality of Eirinha, the nearest one, parish of Serra de Água (Ribeira Brava).
Caves and fossils — 890,000-year-old lava tubes at São Vicente; 5-million-year-old marine fossils at Lameiros; 300,000-year-old fossil dunes at Piedade
The São Vicente caves, born of an eruption on Paul da Serra, can be visited along 700 m; the Rota da Cal shows limestones and fossils more than five million years old; the Piedade dunes at Ponta de São Lourenço keep fossilised roots unique in Europe. Basalt columns at Foz da Ribeira do Faial, the hanging river mouth of Véu da Noiva, a listed lava flow at Foz da Ribeira da Janela.
