Iraty’s Forest

Clinging to the Pyrenees, straddling France and Spain, the Iraty forest is the largest beech forest in Europe. For a long time inaccessible and little exploited, it has managed to preserve a remarkable fauna and flora. Here nature welcomes the shepherds and their herds from May to November. These shepherds live in huts called "etxolak" [...]

Clinging to the Pyrenees, straddling France and Spain, the Iraty forest is the largest beech forest in Europe.

For a long time inaccessible and little exploited, it has managed to preserve a remarkable fauna and flora. Here nature welcomes the shepherds and their herds from May to November. These shepherds live in huts called “etxolak” in Cize and “cayolar” in Soule and have always done so; prehistoric habitats and necropolises bear witness to it.

In spring, it is the arrival of the herds, the long walks towards the Pic des Escaliers or the summit of Occabe.

Summer is the time for hiking, climbing the Orhy Peak, horseback riding or river fishing, and autumn is the time for pigeon hunting, picking porcini mushrooms, and observing the largest migratory movement of birds in Europe at the Organbidexka pass.

When winter returns, it is the joys of snow with the family, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing at the Iraty site.