Cut into a slope of volcanic rock above the valley of the Tirso, near the village of Ardauli in central Sardinia, the Necropolis of Mandras is a cluster of prehistoric tombs that the Sardinians call domus de janas, houses of the fairies or witches. They were carved out of the rock with stone tools by farming communities, mostly in the late Neolithic, and some of the chambers imitate the inside of a house, with carved beams, doorways and pillars. Folklore said they were built by tiny women who wove gold at night, and in a sense the name says more about how ancient they felt to later generations than any date could.
The tombs look out over Lake Omodeo, the largest artificial lake on the island, created in the 1920s by damming the Tirso. The rising water drowned the old village of Zuri, but its Romanesque church of San Pietro was taken down stone by stone and rebuilt on higher ground, where you can still see it today with its red and grey stone. The lake gives this area of the Barigadu a softer feel than much of inner Sardinia, with reed beds, herons and fishermen at the water's edge, and the hills around are covered with cork oak, holm oak and scrub.
The roads around the lake and up through Neoneli, Nughedu Santa Vittoria and Sorradile are a gift to riders: narrow, twisting and hilly, with little traffic and constant changes of view between water and wooded ridges. Surfaces are mostly decent but can be broken or gravelly in places, and sheep and goats appear without warning, especially in the morning and evening when they are moved. In summer the heat is fierce in the afternoons; spring, when the hills are green and full of flowers, is the ideal season.
The villages here are small, a few hundred people each, with a bar or two, a grocer and not much else. For fuel, head towards Ghilarza or Abbasanta on the main road to the west, or to Macomer, the nearest larger town. In the villages, ask at the bar about local food: pecorino, the flat crisp bread called carasau and roast suckling pig at festivals. The silence up at the tombs, broken only by bees and the occasional bell from a flock, is the real reward.