The Alt Maestrat is the high, rugged interior of Castellón province, a country of limestone plateaus, deep ravines and stone villages perched on ridges, and it is crossed by a web of dry-stone walls that farmers have been building and rebuilding for centuries. Near the villages of Benassal, Catí and Villafranca del Cid, under a rock overhang beside an old mill site, the shelter called Molí Darrer holds prehistoric paintings, part of the scattered Levantine rock art that UNESCO inscribed as one site across eastern Spain.
The nearby Valltorta gorge, a short ride south-east, is the best place to see this art properly. Its shelters contain some of the finest scenes of hunters and animals in the whole tradition, and the museum at Tírig runs guided visits. Without a guide, many of the painted overhangs are hard to find and are fenced to protect them.
The Maestrat is beautiful in an austere way. The plateaus are covered in grassland, holm oak and juniper, broken by terraces held up by stone walls, and in winter the wind whistles across them, sometimes bringing snow. Benassal is known for the Font d'en Segures, a mineral water spring whose water is bottled and drunk across the region, and Villafranca del Cid has a long tradition of dry-stone building, with stone huts dotted across the fields. To the north lies Morella, a walled hilltop town crowned by a castle, one of the most striking sights in eastern Spain.
For riders the Maestrat is a paradise. Roads wind across the plateaus and plunge into gorges, with tight bends, long climbs and views that stretch for miles, and traffic is light outside summer weekends. Surfaces are mostly good, but some minor roads are narrow and patched, and gravel and livestock are common. The high country is noticeably colder than the coast, so bring warm layers even in spring, and watch for ice on shaded corners in winter.
Fuel needs planning. The villages here are small, and pumps are few and far between; the nearest large town listed is Alcalà de Xivert near the coast, about thirty-five kilometres away, and Morella is the obvious inland option. Fill up whenever you can. Village bars serve simple, generous food, including local cheeses, cured meats and lamb, and are often the social heart of the place.