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Excursion tip for Mallorca: Take a boat to Sa Dragonera, the island of dragons

Sa Dragonera, the small island and nature park off the western tip of Mallorca, can only be reached by boat. Sports skippers traveling with their own or chartered boats moor in the natural harbor of Sa Dragonera in Cala Lladó, known in English as Robbers’ Cove. From the main island of Mallorca, excursion boats offer trips from Sant Elm and Port d’Andratx.

This excursion is something different from the usual visits to Palma Cathedral, the Serra de Tramuntana, the Castells de Bellver, Alcúdia, Valldemossa, Puig Major or the Palma Aquarium. For this excursion, sports skippers speak of a cruise, you need a boat.

Sa Dragonera (the so-called Dragon Island) is an uninhabited rocky island off the west coast of Mallorca. It is separated from the westernmost point of the island, Punta Negra, by the Canal des Freu, which is only 780 meters wide at its narrowest point. Like Mallorca, Dragonera belongs to the group of Balearic Islands.

In summer, boats depart daily from Port d’Andratx and Sant Telm to Dragonera

If you want to visit the uninhabited island, which is 4.2 km long and only 900 m at its widest point (area 2.88 km²), and don’t have your own boat at hand, take one of the charter boats that offer their services daily (except in stormy weather) from Port d’Andratx and Sant Telm.

The crossing takes about 20 minutes; it’s best to book the return trip at the same time. However, you have to bring your own provisions – unfortunately there are no catering services on the boats or on Dragonera Island itself. And: you also have to take your rubbish back with you, because Sa Dragonera is a nature reserve.

When you arrive at Pirate Cove (the name refers to the island’s turbulent past), you should take a look at the permanent exhibition about Dragonera. Politically, Dragonera belongs to the municipality of Andratx. At the highest point, the 353-meter-high Na Pòpia, stands the former lighthouse Far de Na Pòpia, which is why the mountain is also called Puig des Far Vell.

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Follow the hiking trail to the left as far as Cap de Tramuntana.

The island is car-free and, together with Es Pantaleu and Illa Mitjana, is now part of the Sa Dragonera

Nature Park.
The car-free island was purchased by the island administration of Mallorca as early as 1987 and, by decree of the Balearic government in 1995, together with the islands of Es Pantaleu and Illa Mitjana off the coast of Mallorca, became the Sa Dragonera Nature Park. The area has also been designated by Spain as a European bird sanctuary and a flora-fauna habitat area, and is thus part of the European network of protected areas, Natura 2000.

Seen from Sant Elm, the island does indeed look like a dragon: with a little imagination, the head can be seen lying in the water at Cap des Llebeig in the southwest. The dragon’s backbone with the “scales” of Puig des Aucells (312 m) and Na Pòpia (353 m) follows, and finally the tail extends to Cap de Tramuntana in the northeast.

From the natural harbor of Cala Lladó, a valley extends up to the edge of the island, where water collects and terraces are used for agriculture. The rest of the island consists of rocky maquis or steep schrofen. Be careful: the northwestern side is formed by inaccessible rock faces.

A hiking trail leads to the northeast of the island, and a small road to the southwest. The summit of Na Pòpia can be reached via a former donkey trail, which is now also signposted as a hiking trail.

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Interesting for animal lovers: Dragonera is home to an endemic subspecies of the Balearic lizard, the Dragonera lizard (Podarcis lilfordi ssp. giglioli); the Eleonora’s falcon (Falco eleonorae) has a breeding colony in the cliffs in the northwest of the island, and the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) is also native there. In the past (until about the 1950s), Mediterranean monk seals even lived here.

Sa Dragonera was once considered a pirate island – many pirates are said to have found shelter there.

For centuries, Sa Dragonera was said to have been a port of call and base for pirates, who are said to have hidden in the island’s numerous caves. At the end of the 16th century, two defensive towers were built on the island to protect against the pirates – the Talaia de na Guinavera on the 353-metre-high Puig de na Pòpia in 1580 and the Torre de Llebeig in the bay of the same name in the south of the island in 1585. The latter miraculously survived the centuries and was restored in 2004.

In 1852, a 12-meter-high lighthouse was built on the Puig de na Pòpia, along with two apartments for the lighthouse keepers. In 1910, it was abandoned and replaced by two towers at the northeast (the Far de Tramuntana) and the southwest tip (the Far de Llebeig).

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Far de Tramuntana
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Far de Llebeig

The years that followed were extremely eventful for the small island. It was uninhabited for a while, then there was some farming in the Cala Lladó area, after which the island was used again as a base for the ubiquitous smugglers.

In the 1980s, a banking consortium wanted to build more than 1,000 holiday homes, a large marina and much more on the small Dragon Island. Conservationists and the Mallorcans managed to delay this initially, and finally, in 1984, the Audiencia Nacional de España issued a building ban for the island.

In 1987, the Mallorcan Island Council bought Sa Dragonera and converted it into a protected area.

Fortunately for the mini-island, in 1987 the Mallorcan island council bought Sa Dragonera and converted it into a protected area. For more than 30 years now, it has had the status of a nature park (Parque Natural), together with the neighboring islands of Pantaleu and Sa Mitjana.

If you want, you can explore the island on your own. There are four signposted hiking trails. All of them start at the boat dock in Cala Lladó.

Route 1 leads to the Na Miranda lookout point (there and back 1.1 km).

Route 2 has the lighthouse at Cap de Tramuntana as its destination (there and back 4 km).

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Route 2 (interactive map): Follow the hiking trail to the left to Cap de Tramuntana.

Route 3 has the lighthouse at Cap de Llebeig as its destination (there and back 9.2 km).

Route 4 climbs to the 349-metre-high summit of Na Pòpia (there and back 8.4 km).

Right on the natural harbor is a small ranger station with a permanent exhibition about the island, which is well worth visiting.

SeaHelp is represented in Mallorca with its own rescue center, contact Service Baleares: Calle Ramon de Montcada 17, 07180 Santa Ponsa, Mallorca, Spain. Tel: +34 (0) 646086090, mallorca@sea-help.eu, www.sea-help.eu.

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