Dunas de Guardamar

The Dunas de Guardamar form a forest of nearly 800 hectares, created in the early 20th century to stop sand from advancing into Guardamar del Segura. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the forests that once surrounded the town were cleared — for shipbuilding and to make way for farmland — leaving the coast without natural protection, and the dunes began advancing toward the town at a rate of 2 to 8 metres a year, burying vineyards and orchards as they went.

A forest built to stop the sand

In 1897 a royal order approved a project to defend against and reforest the dunes, led by forestry engineer Francisco Mira i Botella, which began being carried out in the early 20th century. The plan combined a stake palisade along the shore, a second line of grasses, agaves and palms, and a final planting of around 600,000 pine trees — stone pine, maritime pine and Aleppo pine — along with palms and eucalyptus. By the mid-20th century the forest had completely halted the dunes' advance, and today it's designated a Site of Community Importance.

The result is a pine-shaded walk that runs right down to the beach, with signposted paths suited to walking or cycling through a well-preserved dune ecosystem on the shoreline. Within the same protected area are two archaeological sites from the Andalusi-era settlement that once occupied the area, the Rábita Califal and La Fonteta, as well as the Castillo de Guardamar in the town centre.