Sierra Norte: Buitrago and Patones

The Sierra Norte of Madrid is probably the least known yet most surprising area of the entire Community of Madrid. Situated at the far northeastern edge of the region, on the border with Segovia and Guadalajara, it is a world apart: tiny villages lost in solitary valleys, secondary roads that are nearly empty, landscapes alternating between oak groves, rockrose scrublands and meadows, and a population density so low (barely 6 inhabitants per km² across most of the area) that many villages have lost over 80% of their residents in the past hundred years. For bikers from Madrid, it is the perfect escape when the Sierra de Guadarrama is overrun with tourists or when you crave a day of solitude.

Buitrago de Lozoya is probably the most surprising town in the entire Community of Madrid. It is the only town in the region that preserves a complete and virtually intact medieval wall, with its 700 metres of 11th-century ramparts still standing, its defensive towers, its Castillo de los Mendoza and its Romanesque bridge over the river Lozoya. Throughout the Middle Ages it was one of the most important defensive positions in the Sistema Central, controlling the natural pass between Castile and the Madrid area (which was then a modest village). And here lies an unexpected cultural surprise: the small Museo Picasso de Buitrago, founded in 1985 with a donation of works from Picasso's personal barber (Eugenio Arias, a native of the town) that the painter gave him over years of friendship. It is one of the strangest and most moving museums in all of Spain.

The Hayedo de Montejo, just 15 km from Buitrago, is another great secret of the Sierra Norte. It is a relict beech forest — the southernmost beech woodland in all of continental Europe — a fascinating biogeographical rarity that survives here thanks to an exceptionally humid microclimate created by the combination of altitude (over 1,250 m), north-facing orientation and the constant presence of morning fog. Beech trees, normally associated with the Atlantic climates of northern Iberia, find here, in the semi-arid centre of Spain, a last refuge of survival. The Hayedo was declared a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site in 2017 as part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests programme. Visits are made on foot along guided trails, with limited visitor numbers (advance booking required) to protect the fragile ecosystem.

Patones de Arriba is the other hidden gem of the Sierra Norte. It is a village built entirely from local black slate, abandoned for decades during the 20th century and restored from the 1980s onward as a rural and weekend tourism destination. Its architecture is absolutely unique: the houses are rectangular, low, with black slate roofs and black slate walls, without a single element of any other material. Walking through its cobbled lanes (cars are banned from the historic centre) is like stepping into an intact medieval village. Local legend has it that during Napoleon's invasion in the 19th century, French troops failed to conquer Patones because its inhabitants hid in local caves and resisted for months without being detected.

Practical riding tips: the Sierra Norte has a long riding season (March to November) but summer afternoons can get hot. The best time is October–November, when the beech and oak forests turn golden. Traffic is light year-round except on autumn weekends when many Madrileños head up to see the colours. Fill up in Buitrago or Torrelaguna. For a meal, in Patones de Arriba the Restaurante El Rey de Patones (in a restored traditional house) serves wood-oven roast lamb like few other places. And a tip: combine a visit to the Sierra Norte with a detour to Montejo de la Sierra to see the slate houses and, if you are lucky enough to get a booking, take the guided tour of the Hayedo. It is one of the most complete and surprising biking day-trips you can do near Madrid.