LARRAUN VALLEY · NAVARRE
Territory, memory
5,000 years on foot
Guided routes and visits through the mountain landscape of Navarre, around Lekunberri and the Aralar mountain range, halfway between Pamplona and San Sebastián (+ see on the map).
Dolmens, sanctuaries, villages, royal roads, communal mountains… stories the valley keeps, which time has not yet erased.
WHAT IS ASTIRO
It’s not a guided tour. It’s a conversation with the land
As the old Basque saying goes… «Everything that has a name exists*»
*so they say
Astiro was born in the Larraun Valley, Navarre, from a very simple idea: that the landscape has a history, one worth telling and sharing.
The landscape of the Basque-Navarrese mountains. Its heritage, mythology, the history of its valleys and villages, the Basque language and traditional ways of life.
Each walk is a story that grows out of what we find along the way: a 5,000-year-old dolmen, a sanctuary where the Archangel Michael defeated herensuge (the dragon), an old path through beech trees — the very one walked by shepherds who ended up in the Rocky Mountains, or in Idaho.
A story meant to be honest, carefully told. Because what is authentic needs no exaggeration — only to be listened to.
Astiro, in Basque, means slowly, unhurriedly. And that is how we believe a walk should be: at your own pace.
THE TERRITORY
Larraun, Aralar and what lies beneath
The Larraun Valley is one of the pre-Pyrenean valleys with the highest density of megalithic sites. Its forests and ridges hold the trikuharriak (dolmens), the memory of the first shepherds who settled here
Above the valley rises Aralar, the sacred mountain range. At its summit, the Sanctuary of San Miguel was built in the 11th century over a much older place of worship. Beneath the church, in the chasm on which it stands, they say the dragon’s breath can still be heard.
Through its peaks and villages run the royal roads (erret bide) recorded and regulated by the historic charter (fuero) of Navarre — the very root of the modern Basque word for road, «errepide». Villages, beech and oak woods, mountain shelters and pastures to lose yourself in.
The Larraun Valley is made up of 17 villages, whose people, traditional architecture, and communal mountains and forests form a world of their own. The result of traditional ways of life, where every house (etxea) has a name and is the centre of everything, at least «for as long as anyone can remember».
WHAT WE OFFER
Every route, a story
At your own pace
TAILORED ROUTES · NAVARRE
For private groups, travellers with specific interests, or organisations. We design the route around your available time and interests.
From Mari to Ortzi
HALF DAY · LARRAUN · PREHISTORY
A walk along the Jentilharribide* route, to the dolmens of Oderitz: their builders, the mythology, the beliefs behind them, and the question that has gone unanswered for 5,000 years.
An easy circular walk through the forest, 2.5 hours (3.5 km), requiring no particular effort.
*The Jentilharribide Route is the path prepared through auzolan (community work) by Ondare Kultur Taldea, the Iturraskarri social project, and the Council of Oderitz, to make its dolmens accessible.
- €20 per person.
- Small groups: 10 people max.
- Includes a picnic with local products.
- Meeting point: Oderitz car park.
- Pick-up possible from Pamplona or San Sebastián.*
*Please ask about availability and pricing.
The Larraun Valley and its villages
HALF DAY · LARRAUN · THE VALLEY
We’ll visit one of the valley’s villages, Iribas, and the source of the Larraun River, which gives the valley its name, where we’ll find the ruins of the old mill.
The old farmhouses, the valley’s history and its traditional administrative organisation, «auzolan», the local councils… traces of a time when community life was the foundation of everything.
An easy walk, 3 hours (6 km), requiring no particular effort.
- €20 per person.
- Small groups: 10 people max.
- Includes a picnic with local products.
- Meeting point: Iribas car park.
- Pick-up possible from Pamplona or San Sebastián.*
*Please ask about availability and pricing.
BOOKINGS AND ENQUIRIES
Shall we talk?
Write to us to check availability, ask about groups, or arrange a tailored route. We reply in Basque, Spanish and English.
Or if you prefer, send us an e-mail.
