The Cami de Cavalls - Menorca.
The Cami de Cavalls has a special significance for the local population, and not simply a historical one.

The resurgence of the path is the result of hard work on behalf of many people, who believed it should be available as a public right of way, for cultural and social, as well as historical reasons.

It would appear that the path originally dates back to the time of King Jaime II, who ordered each of his knights to have a horse ready for defending the island and its inhabitants.

The path is the outcome of the royal order. Little did the knights imagine, as they patrolled the coastline, that the path they were riding along would centuries later become a coastal path, which, after much hard work, would be open and accessible to all.

The history of the Cami de Cavalls is ancient, but well documented.

For example, during the first British domination the governor Richard Kane deemed it a 'royal way' in 1736, and therefore ordered it to be, 'Maintained and accessible, as it had been in the past'.

A few years later, in 1758, the French governor the Count de Lannion authorised its upkeep and had it widened.

The first known map of the island showing the Cami de Cavalls dates from 1780.

It was drawn by the French cartographer Louis Stokes de Arco de la Rochette. A couple of years later, the Spanish governor of the island, the Count de Cifuentes, said, 'The paths for the horses are open and can be used unhindered'.

More recently, the Balearic Islands Parliament passed the Cami de Cavalls law (Law 13/2000 of 21 December), which established the public right of way of the path, in response to public demand.

Now everyone can come and walk the Cami de Cavalls and go right the way round the island.

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