El Hierro
El Hierro map and guide to the island in the Canaries.
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El Hierro Map and Guide
El Hierro Map: Above you can see a satellite map of El Hierro, showing the smallest of the main islands of the Spanish Canary Islands group, located off the north-west coast of Africa. El Hierro is also the most southerly and most westerly of the Canaries, and the least populated and visited of the main islands. Clearly shown on this El Hierro map are the 2 main town, Valverde and Frontera.
El Hierro Review: Smallest of the 7 major Canary Islands, El Hierro has an area of just 107 square miles, measuring 17 miles from west to east and 15 miles from north to south. It has a population of just over 10,000, over half of which live in the capital Valverde. Nicknamed the “Meridian Island” (Isla del Meridiano), it was used as the prime meridian from 1634 until 1884, when it was replaced by Greenwich in London.
As yet unspoilt by tourism, El Hierro has very limited accommodation opportunities, with few hotels and rental apartments. This will no doubt change in the future as tourism is being encouraged to bolster the economy of the island, which currently relies on agriculture and fishing.
El Hierro History: Little is known of El Hierro before the arrival of the Spanish in the 15th century, though Jean de Bethencourt found the island inhabited by a tribe called the “Bimbache”, who put up token resistance to the invasion but were soon defeated and mostly sold into slavery. Settled by Castillian and Norman peasants, who merged with the remaining natives, El Hierro was required to pay taxes to the Spanish Crown and Dukes of Gomera after 1515, by which time feudal system was in place that lasted until the 19th century.
Believed to be the western edge of the world by Ptolemy, it was used as the prime meridian from 1634 until 1884, when it was replaced by Greenwich in London.
El Hierro was the starting point for Christopher Columbus’s second voyage to the New World in 1443.
Much later during the Spanish Civil War the island was used as a ‘prison’, to where General Franco sent many of his opponents.
There is much confusion as to the origin of the islands name, as it is often called “Ferro”, which is from the Latin for “iron”, and as no iron exists on the island, there must be another explaination. Other possibilities are that it comes from “hero”, a Bimbache name for a water cistern used to store water, collected from trees, that it was from the name of the tree itself (a sacred tree called the garoé), from which the water was collected, or that it came from the Greek “esoro” (holy).
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El Hierro Hotels: There are a limited number of hotels in El Hierro, so you will need to book early to get the dates you want, especially if you are visiting in the "busier" summer months.
Among the El Hierro hotels that you can book using the El Hierro hotel booking form on the right are: The Parador El Hierro Hotel, the Villa El Mocanal Hotel El Hierro, the Casas Rurales Herrenas Hotel El Hierro, the Complejo Rural la Brujita Hotel El Hierro, the Frontera Hotel El Hierro and the Pinar Hotel El Hierro.
Hotel rooms in El Hierro are pretty limited as toruism has not yet hit the island in a big way, but of course, for many, this is the main appeal of the place.
El Hierro Attractions: Among the places to visit and attractions on El Hierro, which we shall be writing up in more detail later are, the Mirador de la Peña, the bay of El Golfo, the Pozo de la Salud spring, the Mirador de Jinama, the Iglesia de la Conceptión Valverde, the Cruz de la Humilladeros on Mount Malpaso, the Roque de Bonanza, and the Parador Nacional El Hierro.