The Wool Trail: Touch & Taste the Shepherd Culture of Serra da Estrela
If you shop in the big cities, Lisbon and Porto, you’ll likely stumble upon Burel shops. Burel is the name given to the wool sourced from Serra da Estrela, a Unesco recognized national park and the highest point in mainland Portugal. The mountain is a ski, biking, hiking and river beach destination. It’s also home to a strand of historic schist villages, each with their unique identity, but bound by a shepherd culture that is central to their existence and allure. The shepherds of Serra de Estrela (in extinction) have been the backbone of Portugal’s most notable cheese (named after the mountain) and high-quality wool.
The Bordaleira breed of sheep provides milk for Serra da Estrela cheese (curdled using a thistle flower that grows on the mountain) and wool for Burel products. To preserve this history the area has developed the annual spring Wool festival and the Chocalhos (sheep rattles) festival at the end of the summer.
As part of your experience, you’ll step into this world of wool with a visit to the Burel factory in the heart of the mountain; spend a day with a shepherd, his herd and the gentle Serra da Estrela sheep dog.
Like the wool, comfy foods were essential to survival on the mountain during the winters. At the table, you’ll taste the emblematic foods of the mountain–including nearly lost recipes essential to factory workers during the boom of the textile industry. You’ll visit the prettiest postcard villages tucked into the mountain and stay in stunning mountaintop hotels that embrace the wool culture in their themes and decor.
Special note: During the Wool and Chocalhos festivals, we can arrange a variety of activities based on each of these events. Read about our experience at the Chocalhos Festival.
