Torcas de Lagunaseca

A sunken landscape

The Torcas de Lagunaseca are a field of karst forms: torcas (collapse sinkholes), dolines, uvalas, poljes and grooved karren. Their size stands out, and they show how the terrain has changed. The rock was deposited around 200 million years ago, and ice and water opened the collapses by dissolving the limestone. They have been a Natural Monument since 2003, covering 188 hectares.

Plants of plateau and doline

Box, thorny broom, thyme, sage and lavender grow on the plateau, with scattered Spanish junipers and black pine where woodland is denser. The thorny hedges are mainly barberry, a shrub native to the peninsula, with blackthorn, wild roses and hawthorn. Rock plants such as té de risca and cinquefoil grow on the doline walls; on the floors are hazels, maples and St Lucie cherries.

Here live red-billed choughs, booted eagles, European nightjars, an endemic bush-cricket (Steropleurus ortegai), wildcats, beech martens, badgers, red deer, roe deer and wild boar.

Plan your visit

A trail of around 4 km, the SL-CU 5, an SL (local trail), crosses the torcas.

Before you travel

Walk along the trail, not inside the dolines. The rules are on the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha’s portal.

Combine with

The village of Lagunaseca and the protected area.