Vulpellac to Castell d'Emporda

Vulpellac is one of the many villages with honey-coloured stone houses that can be found close to La Bisbal d'Emporda - almost like the Cotswolds by the Mediterranean. This is a variation of a walk we took from Vulpellac around La Bisbal, but we keep to the flatter fields to the east, rather than walk along the ridge top to Castell d'Emporda. The route back is not much different from the route out, so an extra variation would be to go via Canapost and Clots de Sant Julia.

We park in the car park just by the roundabout just off the main Bisbal-Palafrugell road just below the village. We walk through the village to start with past the new ajuntament building built in the traditional stone of the rest of the village. There is some new building here, but it is all in a stone-style to keep the look of the village.

We walk through a small lane and emerge at the main centre with cobblestone streets and a run of pretty terraced cottages linked to a fortified tower. Over the wall we can just make out the castle and we go through the tower to loop back to the church. The castle itself is a private residence built in the 13th Century so no access is possible. The castle also has a story in that a former lord heard a rumour that his wife-to-be was unfaithful and he was so jealous that he locked her in a tower and tortured her until he realised he had been misled. In his distress and penance he sought an audience with the Pope and left the inscription Ego Sum Pecavi (I am he that has sinned) around the castle.

From the main street we keep going north into the fields. This is part of the walk we have done before on the loop through La Bisbal, but at this time of year there are poppies everywhere and long grasses along the lanes. The lane continues slowly more becoming more and more grassy until it reaches a stream and we have to cross via some wobbly stepping stones. On the other side, the grass is thick. Around us are small plantations of lime trees among the flat fields. To the left is the hill ridge for the Castel d'Emporda and we can see the castle jutting up above the ridge.

Our grassy path reaches a more substantial track and we turn left across the stream again directly towards the castle. The castle stands high, but a series of cottages seem to tumble off the hill down to the plain below untouched by modern developments.

We reach a tarmacked road beneath the castle and quickly visit the castle for views over the fields. Tractors are out today, one ploughing followed by a line of egrets picking out the insects from the newly turned soil.

After our diversion to the castle we continue on the road northerly to start, before it turns to the right past the farmhouse and old chapel at Sant Marti de Llaneres - part of a former walk between Canapost and Ullastret.

An option is actually to come back via Canapost and then past the Clots de Sant Julia again, but we decide to keep the walk short and turn to the right towards a house under a lime plantation. This connects with the paths we had come on, so for variation we link around the fields. It's not too exciting just walking through flat fields, but it makes for an easy connection back to Vulpellac.

See also: Corça fields and views - Canapost to the medieval fair at Peratallada - La Bisbal d'Emporda - La Bisbal, Vulpellac, Castell d'Emporda, Fonteta - Canapost, Poblet Iberic and Ullastret - Palau-sator and Peratallada