Chulilla & the Hanging Bridges

An hour inland from Valencia, the Turia river has cut a gorge of sheer orange limestone, and the village of Chulilla sits whitewashed on its rim beneath an eleventh-century castle. This is where Valencians go when they want a day that feels far away without going far.

The shorter visit walks the village and climbs to the castle for the view over the canyon. The full route adds the famous hanging bridges - two suspension footbridges strung across the gorge on the old hydroelectric workers' path - with the turquoise river below and vultures riding the thermals above.

As an archaeologist I will make the castle's Islamic origins and the gorge's strange industrial history part of the walk, not a footnote to it.