Solid, traditional and genuine: this first impression of the house is confirmed by longer acquaintance, as one notes the wood beams and ceilings, terracotta underfoot, a hunting and fishing theme in paintings and nicely glazed china plates.
An easy drive from Gaucin village brings you to this very secluded old country villa and its inviting outdoor spaces. When we come across properties like this, we cannot help but tell the unique stories behind them. Back in another time, this villa used to be a roadhouse not just servicing arrieros bringing fresh fish by mule from the coastal villages to the interior of Malaga —using an old mule pathway from Algeciras to Ronda— but also shoeing horses and serving meals to travellers in the afternoon. In the evenings, locals would gather here to chill and dance to live music.
Cared for with detail by its proud owners and still in the same family, the property has evolved into a beautiful villa full of character offering comfort and a fantastic holiday experience in the heart of Malaga.
The villa and its private parking back onto a virtually unused country lane. Unseen from here, all the interesting gardens and the grassy pool area are on the other side of the villa where you will enjoy perfect privacy and bucolic views.
With an outstanding Master bedroom upstairs and three ground floor bedrooms, it is suitable for families or a couple who want somewhere special to stay all to themselves.
The kitchen comes properly equipped and there is no shortage of glasses and crockery.
It's cool and fresh inside, providing a welcome contrast with the warm-to-hot outdoors. Fans are also provided in case you need them.
There's indoor dining to seat 8 people and the living area has comfortable sofas for everyone also, by a large fireplace that comes into its own in winter.
Downstairs are three bedrooms. One's a spacious, airy room, simply furnished with table and chairs and enjoying direct access to the main terrace via french windows.
The most striking feature of the house, where a forge once served to shod wayfarers' horses while they put up at the hostelry, is the upstairs. The entire first floor is one fabulous bed-sitting room with its own en suite bathroom. The great expanse of the space comes as quite a surprise: even after providing the room with a new king size bed, there is still plenty of space and a sitting area under a vaulted wood ceiling. There's a sofa, rocking chairs, and windows with different views. There's also a good wooden cot. We did find the bathtub a little small and it's probably best used as a shower.
This upstairs floor-and-bedroom has a door at the foot of the stairs to close it off from the sitting room below. Some people will desire this, while parents with very young children may wish to consider if they want to be separated from the little ones on a different floor.
Outside the kitchen is a simply furnished dining area, whose shade makes it ideal for lunches in the fresh air. Children will be curious about the swallow's nest which is something of a fixture here, the birds returning year after year to the same simple home.
Continue round to the main terrace and you come to the main outdoor area, where you're likely to be spending the lion's share of your holiday time.
Dining with a view from the broad terrace is very agreeable and you have the use of a large brick-built barbecue among the clementine trees.
Gardens, which include a gated pool garden, run down to beautiful Ronda hill country, with some pretty walks in the woods from the doorstep. The swimming pool is a large 10 m by 5 m. It's tiled in mosaic and there's a pool shower. You're secluded and not overlooked, looking out at the natural scene and a few cows —who needs a lawn mower?— belonging to the finca, whose bells are about the only sound you will hear in the distance. There's a handsome white bull, too, who roams the hillside.
After our most recent visit in Spring 2015, we were very pleasantly surprised to see that plenty of work, as well as dedication and attention to detail, has been put in to raise general standars, such as a new latex matress, memory foam pillows or the improved fence outside —just to name a few— and many other little details that keep adding to the general comfort and quality standards of this unique holiday home.
No shortage of sunbeds here, and there are brushwood sunshades, although the poolside trees provide a better, more complete shade.
The views and the peacefulness go very happily together.