Menorca has more prehistoric monuments per square kilometre than almost anywhere in Europe, and Trepucó is the one nearest to the island's capital. It is a talayotic settlement, built by a Bronze and Iron Age people whose culture lasted from around 1000 BC to the Roman conquest. The most striking things are a very large talayot, a stone tower whose purpose is still debated, and a taula, a T-shaped monument made of two enormous stones, one set on its edge and the other laid across the top. Nobody knows for certain what the tauli were for, though most scholars think they belonged to a sanctuary.
Trepucó has a later chapter too. In 1781, during the siege of the British-held Fort St Philip, the Spanish and French forces used the site as an artillery position, and you can still see the remains of those works layered over the ancient ones. Menorca was in British hands for much of the eighteenth century, and the island's roads, its gin and even its leaning toward cheese and mayonnaise legends all owe something to that era.
Riding here means small roads, drystone walls and a surprising amount of traffic around Maó. The island is low, with its highest point barely over 350 metres, and the main road runs the length of it, which makes distances short. The pleasure is in the lanes that lead off the road, bounded by pared seca, the walls built without mortar, among fig trees, olive groves and the occasional windmill. Wind from the north, the tramontana, can be fierce in winter, and the sun in summer is strong, so go early or late.
Maó is only a couple of kilometres away, with fuel, food and a splendid natural harbour, one of the longest in the Mediterranean. Try Mahón cheese, with its salty bite, and the local gin, distilled in the port, either neat or in a pomada with lemonade. Bring cash for the small sites, and walk the site in a hat, as there is little shade.