Castellote is a hill town in the Maestrazgo, the high, dry and wonderfully empty country of southern Aragon, and the shelter of La Vacada lies among the limestone gorges nearby. The name suggests a place where cattle were gathered. The area has some of the finest Levantine rock art in Teruel, and the figures here are part of the Mediterranean-arc ensemble UNESCO recognised in 1998: slender red archers, deer and sometimes a hunting scene, painted on the walls of shallow caves. The rock is pale and the cliffs are cut by the river Guadalope, which carves a sequence of narrow canyons through the plateau.
Riding in the Maestrazgo is a pleasure for those who like emptiness. The roads climb from the river valleys onto bare plateaus at around a thousand metres, with wide horizons, thyme and juniper along the verges, and villages built of the same stone as the hills. The tarmac is mostly decent, but there is often a sheen of loose grit, and in winter the plateau can hold snow. Spring is best, when the almond blossom has just gone and the fields are green. In summer, afternoons are scorching.
Castellote itself has less than a thousand people, and the other villages around it are smaller. Mas de las Matas is a little larger, and the nearest real town is Andorra, almost thirty kilometres away, where you will find fuel, supermarkets and workshops. Do not leave it late to fill up. For a coffee or lunch, small bars in the villages serve a plate of local ham, a bowl of stew, or migas, the fried breadcrumb dish that shepherds invented. The Teruel region is famed for its cured ham, and the cold, dry air is the reason.
The landscape holds other stories. Castellote's castle belonged to the military orders after the Reconquista, and the Maestrazgo was a battleground during the Carlist wars in the nineteenth century. Today it has a quiet, almost abandoned feel, and that is why many riders love it.