Dry Stone Route (GR 221)

The GR 221 — Ruta de Pedra en Sec, the Drystone Route — is Mallorca's flagship long-distance walk, threading 140 km of UNESCO-listed Serra de Tramuntana between Port d'Andratx in the south-west and Port de Pollença in the north-east. It traces ancient mule-paths and charcoal-burners' tracks built across the centuries entirely from drystone (no mortar), through villages cited in Chopin and George Sand's biographies, past Carthusian monasteries, and along ridges with the Mediterranean visible to one side and the island's interior to the other.

The walk is conventionally walked west-to-east, with 8 to 10 stages of 10–27 km each. The opening days from Port d'Andratx climb steadily through cliff villages — Estellencs, Banyalbufar, Valldemossa (Frédéric Chopin's "winter at the Charterhouse"), and Deià (Robert Graves's village). The mid-trail traverses the high country around Sóller and the trail's high point at Tossals Verds (around 1,100 m). The final stages descend through Lluc, Mallorca's spiritual heart (a 13th-century monastery and pilgrimage site), and out to Pollença. Cumulative climb is roughly 6,800 m.

The walking season is mid-September to mid-May — summer is too hot (35–40 °C inland) and many of the refugis close. The Consell de Mallorca runs a network of public refugis (€15–25 per dormitory bed, basic kitchen, book ahead via refugismallorca.com) at strategic points; private accommodation in the villages fills the gaps. The trail is well-marked with the red-and-white GR stripes. The drystone walls themselves are the trail's signature feature — the network represents about a third of the island's 50,000 km of historic drystone paths and walls, all built without mortar.