Ransol, old stone houses and a valley made for walking

Some of Canillo’s villages line the main road; others you have to climb to. Ransol is one of the climbers, and I think that’s why it has kept its mountain-village feel better than any of them. It sits just off the road at El Tarter and opens onto one of the most rewarding valleys in the parish for walking.

Medieval houses and a pre-Romanesque church

Andorra Turisme describes Ransol as a small high village where a cluster of old houses sits alongside newer ones. Its old core has several medieval houses, and the chapel, Sant Jaume de Ransol, is pre-Romanesque in origin. It stands by the road and marks a stage of the Way of St James as it crosses Andorra.

It has a simple bell gable, like Sant Miquel in Prats, Sant Pere in El Tarter and Sant Bartomeu in Soldeu, a family of plain belfries that the same source links to the shape of fourteenth-century Andorran houses. From the village there’s also a broad view over the Canillo valley, one of the best you’ll get without walking.

Where is Ransol and how do you get there?

According to the Comú’s walking guide, Ransol is about 5 km from Canillo village. You reach it on the CS-260, which leaves a roundabout on the CG-2 shortly before El Tarter. Walkers can also arrive on foot, as part of the 33 km circular path round the whole parish passes through Ransol, according to Andorra Turisme.

Ransol isn’t the only settlement up that turning. Taking the CS-261 to the left brings you to Els Plans, and a little further down the main valley is L’Aldosa de Canillo. All three are close to El Tarter, which is where I’d look for a bed.

The Coma de Ransol, a valley that starts at the door

The real reason to come up is what lies above. The Coma de Ransol is a high valley reached by carrying on along the CS-260 to km 5, where there’s a picnic area at 1,950 m. Andorra Turisme lists four barbecues, four tables and a spring there, and it’s the starting point for almost every walk.

The easiest goes to the Cóms de Jan hut. The Comú’s guide gives it 1,836 m, 50 minutes and 263 m of ascent, waymarked in yellow. The hut, at 2,215 m, is free and unstaffed, with 10 places and a fireplace, and the Comú restocks the firewood and first-aid kit in summer. For me it’s the perfect first taste of the Andorran mountains.

A step up are the Estany del Querol and the Salamandres pools, at 2,303 and 2,342 m, reached in about two hours from the end of a side road that leaves the valley at the pont de Mos. The Comú warns that you’ll often meet grazing horses as you arrive. For serious walkers there’s Pic de la Serrera, the parish’s highest summit at over 2,900 m, with 995 m of climbing past the collada dels Meners, where iron was mined between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.

The Comú also runs guided ecotourism walks in the Coma focused on marmots, which share the valley with chamois, roe deer, wild boar and birds such as the goshawk. With children in tow, it turns a walk into a nature lesson.

Ransol by bike and through the seasons

Andorra Turisme’s cycling route 03 climbs the whole CS-260 from the CG-2 roundabout to the Cóms de Jan, 4.5 km from 1,664 to 1,944 m at an average gradient of 6.2%. It’s a good warm-up before the proper passes I cover in road cycling in Andorra.

Above 1,700 m, the tourist board advises walking only from late June to late September, and from May to October if weather and ground allow. Outside that window the Coma is snowshoe and ski-touring territory, and I wouldn’t treat it as a stroll.

Food to take home

At the entrance to the village is Cal Jordi, which Andorra Turisme presents as one of its small producers of traditional cured meats, with visits to see how they’re made and a tasting. It’s what I’d buy in Ransol, and the tourist board also lists its charcuterie among the local products sold in shops in Canillo and Soldeu.