BRAÑA DE SOUSAS ROUTE

Braña de Sousas route (PR.AS - 16.1)

The walk starts in the village of Valle de Lago on an easy path which, after crossing the river and passing close to the church, leaves to the right heading south from the La Caleya neighbourhood. The first stretch runs between meadow walls, which give way, as the path moves away from the village, to hazel, chestnut, oak and beech. All the way to the Braña de Sousas there are wide views of the beech woods and mountains of Coto and Valle.

The braña sits inside a moraine, at the bottom of a sheltered glacial cirque on the western slope of Peña Llana. From it there are spectacular views of the head of the cirque, as well as of the Altu’l Muñon (1,863 m) and the deep hollow at its foot, once occupied by a lake that later erosion drained.

Brañas such as Sousas arose in Somiedo with transhumant livestock farming, a way of using high pastures that are only available in summer. This braña follows the oldest type: it is made up of corros, round huts built of several courses of stone and finished with a false dome of slabs, later covered with tapinos, sods of turf that improve the thermal insulation and waterproof the building. The insulation is completed by an almost total lack of openings: the door and a tiny window are the only ventilation.

They are generally grouped in pairs, one sheltering the herder (the brañeiro) and the other the livestock. Because these were the highest brañas, they were used for only a very short time, and not the whole family but just one of its members moved up to them. Although in a worse state of repair, some corros can still be found in other brañas of the Park: La Mesa or Valdecuélebre, for example. From the Braña de Sousas the walk can be continued by taking the path that climbs south to the Collado del Muñón, on the border between Asturias and León. This point has fine views of the Sierra del Rebezu, where herds of chamois are often seen.

On the way back, do not miss the Peña Furada viewpoint, reached by a path that starts six hundred metres below the Braña de Fuexo and, beyond the viewpoint, drops down to rejoin the main track.