Daniel’s Levada Directory

Levada do Pico de Gaula

Archival documentation — not a current hiking recommendation. Source file on danishome.ch last modified: 12 June 2020

Area

Gaula/East

Length

2.5 Km

Year built

Clearly older than the Levada dos Tornos

Madrei

Old Madre: Ribeira da Metade N 32°41.346 W 16°50.404 ca. 660 m a.s.l.

Active Madre: small stream N 32°41.247 W 16°50.232 ca. 625 m a.s.l.

Offtake from the Levada dos Tornos: N 32°41.112 W 16°50.110 ca. 600 m a.s.l.

Course

The old Madre in the Ribeira da Metade is still well preserved. The water is still dammed under a huge pile of wood and led back into the stream by a hose over the Madre wall.

Further on, the old levada is still clearly visible, but it has not carried water for some time. The path is also quite blocked by fallen trees, and in places it is not possible to get through. Then comes a small water house, which is empty; shortly after, a black-and-blue pipe appears briefly on the levada path.

Soon after that one reaches the active Madre. The water is taken from a small stream that crosses the levada path, and a little more comes from a small metal pipe. The small levada winds above the Levada dos Tornos and joins the Tornos shortly before the tunnel of the Levada dos Tornos, which can be bypassed on the outside. The black-and-blue pipe crosses the Tornos and disappears into the levada path.

The levada originally continued on the tunnel bypass, below the small rock face; a few well-preserved channels can still be seen, and further traces in the grass. One then comes to the foot of a stairway that follows a levada outflow from the Levada dos Tornos. Higher up, the water is branched off, well hidden, from the Levada dos Tornos; the sluice sits under a locked cover. This outflow joins the levada that lies on the continuation of the bypass path.

The feeder to the Levada dos Tornos, the bypass path and the continuation of the levada therefore form one historical whole, interrupted by the Levada dos Tornos built later.

Water from the Ribeira da Metade is therefore no longer taken into the Levada do Pico de Gaula. It continues down the valley in the stream bed, is taken by the Levada dos Tornos, but historically belongs to the owners of the Levada do Pico de Gaula. The active part of the Levada do Pico de Gaula is also led into the Levada dos Tornos, and it too belongs to the old owners of the Levada do Pico de Gaula. The sum of these two inlets is now drawn back out of the Levada dos Tornos into the Levada do Pico de Gaula after the tunnel.

After the stairway the way continues on a wide levada path towards Pico de Gaula. Along the way the black-and-blue pipe appears again. It is probably a drinking-water main, buried in the path beside the Levada do Pico de Gaula, then beside the Levada dos Tornos, and later beside the Levada do Pico de Gaula again.

At the junction of the Caminho da Levada dos Iróis, the Caminho do Pico Sul and the Rua do Pomar there is a sluice that controls the outflow into the side branch along the Caminho do Pico Sul.

The main branch follows the Rua de Pomar for a few metres and then turns off to the north. The levada is easy to follow. It is somewhat overgrown as far as a small stream, and then back to the Rua de Pomar. The road is crossed and, after rounding a small lombo, the levada follows the road and ends in the area of the Levada do Pico das Eiroses.