A machine gun post up in the hills behind Arenales

Up in the hills behind the new hotels that have sprung up at the south of Arenales, rising up over the Clot De Galvany nature reserve, lies this absolute beauty of a machine gun post. It's a bit of a clamber up to reach it but it really is stunningly well preserved and well worth the effort. Although at some point it looks like the rough stonework has had some repointing it is not sealed up and you can step inside and back in time and peer out of the gun slots with their view across the road network and land to the south. It's tiny inside, probably a one man operation and possibly more for observation purposes. Alongside it runs what look like the remains of a trench network - long filled in with the sand from the dunes but with their stone lips intact. I am pleased to be able to add this important and historic relic to the overall picture we are building up.

The exploration of the collapsed and hidden defences in the Clot continues

I've come to the conclusion that there is a mass of hidden and undocumented Civil War military history buried away in the Clot De Galvany and I am on a mission to uncover it. We know about the well-preserved bunkers and installations on the official trail but I'm after the areas secrets. Having found one collapsed and overgrown bunker near the lake a few months ago I now have an eye for the tell tale signs and am sure these parts of the Republican defensive wall were built in clusters and strategic lines. So, I was well chuffed to spot this the other side of the nature reserves fence and squeezed under to take a look. The straight concrete line is the lip of a trench behind what would have been a domed and camouflaged gun emplacement. The trench has been filled in with sand down the years and the bunker has collapsed but the curved wall is still visible although well overgrown. You can also pick out some of the internal concrete shell that the stone disguise would have covered. Another important discovery.