The Cami Vell del Far de Formentor, the old road to the Formentor lighthouse, which links it to Cala Murta, is to be restored and included in the Council of Majorca's network of public ways. Disused since the 1970s, the national government has passed ownership of the road to the Council.
The Cami Vell will be for hiking and form part of the dry-stone route, which currently covers a total of 168 kilometres. The Council's president, Miquel Ensenyat, and others visited the lighthouse on Thursday and were able to see the zig-zag old road and its poor condition. It will become, said the councillor for the environment, Sandra Espeja, "one of the most spectacular" stretches along the dry-stone route.
Work on the road will include restoring walls and clearing forest vegetation that has encroached. Ensenyat said that the Council will make the road accessible to everyone and that it will be based on a model of sustainability.
The road was built in order to transport material for building the lighthouse, principally stone from Binissalem. Pollensa mayor, Miquel Àngel March, explained that the main road to the beach in Formentor was opened in 1930 and that the extension to the lighthouse was completed in 1951. At that point the old road started to fall into disuse.