​The youngest and most westerly of the Canary Islands, El Hierro was declared a a Geopark in 2014 and a World Biosphere Reserve in 2000. 
Scarred by cones and craters, while swathes of the island are ruggedly sparse, their fire-hewn birth story told in folds of crumpled lava, elsewhere are intriguing pockets of deep and verdant forest.

 

The island’s trump card is altitude. It peaks at 1,501 metres and roads that hairpin through several microclimates can take you from prickly-pear orchard to pungent pine forest in the blink of an eye. From loamy laurisilva to black-sand calderas and cow-dotted pastures that are reminiscent of the Yorkshire Dales, the island is full of surprises.