Pig out in the Sierras

At the annual ham fiesta in the provincial capital of Huelva in the forgotten western reaches of Andalusia, a television reporter is asking a formidable posse of grannies what it tastes like. "Acorns," say some. "Chestnuts," suggest others. "Aracena," announce all of them.

They mean the hilly region 70 miles northwest of Seville. As part of the broader Sierra Morena, the Aracena region is not going to cause any gasps among aficionados of the Pyrenees, Sierra Nevada or the Picos de Europa, with nothing much above 2,500ft. As the source of Spain's most-prized meat product though, this is a Holy Land for carnivorous gourmets. In Spain it's a famous enough region to have its own distinctive taste.

Although it seems like it, this isn't only pig country. Rather a lot of the plentiful open space here is set aside for toros bravos, the fighting bulls destined for slaughter in the corrida - and the presence of which can give a country walk a certain frisson.

The sleek black swine, though, dominate the region's economy, apart from tourism, and most of the visitors are Spaniards, here to see the pigs in their natural habitat and eat them in the multifarious forms in which their meat is rendered. The Iberian pig occupies such an intrinsic role in the country's national psyche that every true Spaniard cannot help but salivate when in the presence of these engaging creatures.

Hop off the slow train from Huelva at El Repilado and you can smell ham on the wind. The powerful scent comes from Jabugo, the village that has become synonymous with the finest Spanish ham. Wander a little on the paths and tracks that crisscross the region and you will pass thousands of the sociable little pigs, rummaging around contentedly in groves of cork oak, grubbing for acorns and chestnuts.

Aracena, the small town that gives the sierra its name, devotes an entire museum to the glories of ham. Locals proudly claim it is the only such attraction in the world. One room, the grandly named Centro de Interpretacion del Cerdo Iberico, is a kind of shrine to the Iberian pig, tracing its illustrious history (although rather glossing over what happened to the pigs when the Muslims occupied Andalusia for centuries). That said, there's only so much entertainment to be derived from a pork product, and before long you'll realise this meat is better appreciated on a plate, washed down with a cool fino.

Unsurprisingly the ham museum isn't the town's prime tourist attraction. The castle is a crumbling Moorish edifice with a Templar church tacked on, but Aracena is inordinately proud of the chambers that lurk far beneath it, in the spectacular cave complex Gruta de las Maravillas. You can visit this outstanding natural phenomenon only in a tour group of 35 or so, which means that unless you are travelling in your own coach party, you might find yourself hanging around the entrance waiting for enough people to turn up to take the trip.

It's worth a little of your time, though, as the elaborate formations of stalactites and stalagmites, and the great natural auditoriums formed by the rock are distinctly memorable. Photography is not allowed, to preserve the rock formations (and to maintain queues at the ticket office). Local chancers with a licence will snap your picture as you wander into one of the chambers and lurk around the exit to charge you €5 (£3.40) for the souvenir.

There won't be too much to detain you in Aracena, when the network of mountain paths here encourage walking from village to village. This isn't always as easy as the tourist offices would insist, however: many of the paths being overgrown, the signs obscured, or blocked entirely by landowners wanting to preserve the privacy of their beloved pigs. You need a certain amount of persistence and bloody-mindedness to follow all the trails optimistically suggested by the tourist office maps.

A few enlightened souls, though, are realising that well-managed tourism could be as vital an economic asset to this part of Andalusia as it is on the benighted costas. The Posada de Valdezufre, in a little village five miles southeast of Aracena, is the region's closest approximation to a boutique hotel, run by a manager who wanted to bring the high-end hospitality he learnt in the Canary Islands hotels back to his home region. The Posada has a combination of a homely sierra atmosphere and the comfort of a luxury hotel, with rooms and suites looking out over the mountains, the nearby squealing of happy black pigs the only soundtrack.

In the restaurant the chef puts a haute cuisine spin on the peerless local produce, and that means more than just the illustrious pig. Wild asparagus enjoys a brief but glorious season. Wild mushrooms, the tanas, which grow in profusion after a hot summer and the first rains of autumn, are brushed with a little olive oil and grilled to give a crisp outer coating and a rich aromatic flesh beneath. Fresh green beans are similarly unfussy, sautéed with some salty, succulent ham.

Beyond the best restaurants, and beyond the ubiquitous jamon, mountain food is rough and ready and still tied to the seasons. Game is abundant in autumn and winter, and you will still find many restaurant menus offering migas, the breadcrumb and garlic dish that has been the staple diet of less affluent sierra-dwellers for generations.

A hire car or an attentive study of the sierra bus route can take you from Aracena to Zufre. Countless tourists dutifully make the coach trips from the Costa del Sol every year to admire the gorge at Ronda. Zufre is tinier, no less spectacular but considerably less busy. It is a Moorish outpost clinging above a crumbling ancient wall, with the terraced cliff face below testimony to their ingenuity when it came to finding places to grow supplies of vegetables and citrus fruit.

The architecture is classical Mudejar, that compromise made by Christians unwilling to cast away all elements of Moorish technique, even if they called the church La Iglesia de la Purisima Concepcion, which is about as devout as it gets.

Perhaps it pays to be pious in these parts, if only to allay the suspicion that they have made an idol of the Iberian pig. Perhaps it's just the blithe beauty of the scenery. Sip a beer and nibble on tapas at the Aleman bar in Zufre's tranquil town square, and gaze over a timeless frontier landscape.


Details: Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies from London Stansted to Seville from £35 one way, including taxes and charges. Aracena can be reached using Casal company buses (+34 954 41 06 58), which run twice daily from Seville (Plaza de Armas station) in about 90 minutes. There is also a daily bus from Lisbon taking about four hours. The Hotel Posada de Valdezufre (+34 959 46 33 22, www.valdezufre.com), has double rooms for €95 (£64) and junior suites for €130. For further information see www.andalucia.org and www.tourspain.co.uk.