What to see

Muniellos Natural Reserve

Fuentes del Narcea, Degaña e Ibias

About this place

The largest oak forest in Spain and one of the best preserved in Europe. A temple of nature with restricted access to guarantee its purity.

The Forbidden Forest

The Muniellos Strict Nature Reserve is the wild heart of Asturias: the largest oak forest in Spain and one of the best preserved in Europe. To protect it, only 20 people a day may enter, with an authorisation from the regional government that has to be requested in advance. It is not hard to get, but it comes with deadlines, and missing one means losing your place.

The essentials in one minute

Quota: 20 people a day.
Price: free.
When to apply: from 15 December of the year before your visit.
When to confirm: between 23 and 15 days before the date. Unconfirmed bookings are cancelled.
Limit: one permit per person per year.
Entrance: the Tablizas Visitor Reception Centre.
Pets: not allowed.

What you will see

Muniellos is a forest that has been left to itself, and that is what sets it apart:

Centuries-old oaks draped in lichens, the “old man’s beard” that only grows where the air is very clean.
Wildlife of a mature forest: this is Cantabrian brown bear country, and home to wolves, capercaillie, otters and forest birds such as the black woodpecker.
Glacial lakes in the upper part of the valley; both routes reach the first one.

How to get the permit, step by step

1. Book the date

Applications open on 15 December for every date of the following year, and stay open until 12 December of that year while places remain. There are three ways to apply:

Online, on the Principality of Asturias website (the procedure is called «Autorización de visitas a la reserva natural integral de Muniellos»). You can see availability and get your booking on the spot.
By phone, on 012 from within Asturias or +34 985 279 100 from elsewhere, Monday to Friday, 8:30 to 19:00.
In person, at the regional government’s citizen service offices.

Places are allocated in order of application. If you want to go in autumn, on a Spanish long weekend or at a weekend, book as early as you can: those dates go first.

2. Confirm between 23 and 15 days before

This is the step most people forget. The booking is not yet the permit: you must confirm it between 23 and 15 days before your visit, through the same channel. If you do not, it is cancelled and the place is released. Put the date in your calendar the day you book.

3. Bring the permit and your ID

On the day, every member of the group must carry the authorisation and an identity document. The person responsible for the group must be an adult.

If someone in the group changes

People can be swapped, within a limit that depends on the size of the permit:

People on the permit	Changes allowed
1	None
2 to 5	1
6 to 15	2
16 to 20	4

Changes and cancellations are made through the same procedure. If you cannot go, cancel: you free a place someone else is waiting for.

Days it is closed

The reserve cannot be visited:

On 1 and 6 January and on 24, 25 and 31 December.
On every Tuesday in January, February, March, November and December.

The Tablizas Reception Centre opens at 8:45 all year. It closes at 17:15 in January, November and December; at 18:15 from February to May and in October; and at 19:15 from June to September.

The two routes

The visit starts at Tablizas, where the wardens check your permit and explain the two options:

River Route (Ruta del Río): an out-and-back path alongside the river. The easier one and, being out and back, you can turn round wherever you like.
Fonculebrera Route: a loop of about 20 km (7 to 8 hours), only for people used to mountain terrain: it has tricky passages, steep slopes and sections with ropes, and it is closed when there is snow. In return, it gives the best views of the valley.

Both reach the first of the lakes, Laguna de la Isla.

Rules

Inside the reserve you may not leave the paths, swim, light fires, smoke, camp, hunt, fish, drop litter or fly drones. Pets are not allowed in. Walk quietly: it is the best way not to disturb the wildlife and to have any chance of seeing it.

Getting there

The entrance is at Tablizas, in the municipality of Cangas del Narcea, reached through Moal, on the road up to the Connio pass. Before you arrive, between Oballo and Moal, you pass the Muniellos Interpretation Centre, which is free, needs no permit and is worth a stop.

Where to stay

Tablizas opens at 8:45 and the long route takes the whole day, so the easiest plan is to sleep nearby the night before. Cangas del Narcea is the base with the most services, and from there you drive to Moal; 2 km from the town stands Corias Monastery, now a Parador hotel. All the places to stay in Fuentes del Narcea are on one page.

If you cannot get a permit

Not all of Muniellos is closed. Without authorisation you can:

Walk the Moal Forest route, known as “the gateway to Muniellos”: it climbs to the Montecín viewpoint, which looks into the reserve.
Follow the accessible path from Moal to Tablizas and the 500-metre self-guided riverside trail at Tablizas.
Look over the forest from the Connio viewpoint, at the top of the pass (1,315 m).
Visit the Interpretation Centre.

When to go

Autumn is the most sought-after season, for the colour of the oaks and beeches; it is also when places run out first. In spring the forest is at its greenest and the days are longer. In winter it is closed on Tuesdays, it gets dark early and the long route closes with snow. More on the forest through the year in the Muniellos forest.