Did someone tell me that many moons ago there was a train service that ran under the Guardiana between Vila Real and Ayamonte and the blocked tunnel entrance is still visible, or have I just had a vino too many?

Ahh, Thanks for that. If anyone has more info about when & why the tunnel was there I’d be interested to know. Thanks

This isn’t what I imagined. I misunderstoood & thought it went all the way across to VR. The way I’m interpreting this article is not that at all. Thanks for that.

When we first moved over here 11 years ago we were lucky enough to get involved with a walking group which met every Sunday usually to do countryside walks. As this Sunday walk was on Easter Sunday we decided to walk around Ayamonte and then watch the parade in the afternoon. When we reached the hilltop where the Parador is someone said that some building work had been going on and they had uncovered a tunnel which led down to the river. Seemingly there was a fort/castle on this hilltop and they reckoned the tunnel was an escape route if they had to do a runner, where they would have boats waiting.
Walking back into town past the church the morning service was just finished and the priest invited us in to have a look round. Could not believe how the pillars supporting the roof were visibly leaning at an angle, and he explained this stemmed from the earthquake in Lisbon, I think in the 1700’s.
And just to finish it off we walked further in to town and came across this house which belongs to a fairly famous artist who was standing at his gate and invited us in to have a look round his garden. It was fantastic, including a red British telephone box. Hard to believe this is in the heart of town. We often see him having his coffee at The Passage, seemingly his paintings are in the Vettriano (spelling?) style and sell for a few thousand.

How interesting. I think it would be good to have a local historian walk us around Ayamonte.

Hi Margaret & Derek we remember that walk very well, especially the invite from the artist. A Scottish lady (Janice) also arranged a couple of walks around Ayamonte, one of which was a visit to the 4 churches , which was brilliant. We also went around the Torre de Canela and learnt about the history of that area, very interesting. There is also a Roman grave in that area.