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🌿 Nature

Ponta de São Lourenço

  • 🏅 Regional network of natural monuments
  • 🏅 Protected area

🏘️ Machico · Caniçal

The island's eastern tip, a world apart: a nine-kilometre volcanic peninsula, basalt with some limestone sediments, extended by the Desembarcadouro and Farol islets, where the semi-arid climate and northern winds allow only creeping plants — not a single tree. A regional Natural Monument and Natura 2000 site (1,320 ha with the marine part), an important bird area (Cory's shearwater, Bulwer's petrel, Madeiran storm petrel, terns), one of the Region's largest gull colonies, some 160 plant species including exclusive endemics, and now and then a monk seal offshore. Baía d'Abra is a remarkable anchorage; to the west, Prainha and the Piedade dunes with their 300,000-year-old fossils below the 16th-century chapel. PR 8 (4 km + 4 km, 2:30) leads to Casa do Sardinha; the tip, bought by the Region in 1994, is under total protection. Views of both coasts from Ponta do Rosto.

  • 9 km peninsula
  • Natural Monument, Natura 2000
  • Seabirds, monk seal
  • PR 8
  • Piedade fossil dunes
Price
Protected area: €4.50 (over 12) via SIMplifica, free for residents and under-13s
GPS
32.74317, -16.70084
🧭 Getting there
The place stands 1,858 m from the locality of Rochinha, the nearest one, parish of Caniçal (Machico).
🅿️ Parking
The nearest car park is Bus, 294 m away.
🗺️ See it on the map🧭 Go there
Good to know about Ponta de São Lourenço2

  • 1 July 1419 — Anchor in the bay

    Rounding Ponta de São Lourenço, João Gonçalves Zarco anchored in the bay of Machico, chosen for its shelter. The crew spent the night on board and landed only the next day, on an island covered by the dense woodland that would give it its name.

  • 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.

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