Compass

Upper Rock

All routes

Pillars, Neanderthals and the Sunset Cape

You cannot watch the sunset inside the reserve. It closes before sunset every single day of the year. This is the walk that solves that: Pillars of Hercules, the Gorham's Cave viewing platform (a UNESCO World Heritage Neanderthal site), then Europa Point itself, with a café, toilets and level parking, and Bus 2 running back to town after dark. It's also our step-free, accessibility-friendly route. The cut-down version is a flat, paved 1,011 m loop from the bus stop to the Gorham's platform and back, about an hour, no climbing. Works year-round, even in August. 3.51 km, easy, 2 to 2h30.

Two-page notebook panorama of the Rock of Gibraltar from the west: the sheer north face on the left, the summit ridge running south and dropping to the low tail at Europa Point, the town along the shoreline, sailing boats in the bay and the Spanish coast as a pale band on the right. The Summit Circle is drawn over it as a dotted ink line with five numbered stops: the cable car top station, Signal Hill, the Skywalk, St Michael's Cave and the Apes' Den, listed in order underneath.
  1. 1Cable Car Top Station
  2. 2Signal Hill
  3. 3Skywalk
  4. 4St Michael's Cave
  5. 5Apes' Den
  6. then 185 m back up
Distance
3.51 km
Climb
0 m up, 160 m down
On foot
2 h 15 m
Effort
Easy · steps

Take this walk offline.

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The walk

Jews' Gate to Europa Point: outside the reserve, no closing time, the only sunset walk.

Before you set off

  • Two litres each in summer. The only water on the route is at St Michael's Cabin, halfway round.

  • The gates shut at 19:00 in summer and 18:00 in winter, and no path is lit. Work backwards from closing time.

  • Feeding a macaque is illegal and carries fines up to £4,000. Keep food out of sight and bags closed.

What you will actually see

four stops. The three with drawings are the ones worth stopping properly for. The rest are short: a minute of narration to keep you walking, and a reason to look at something.

  1. 1

    Jews' Gate / Pillars of Hercules

    180 m

    The edge of the classical world, above the gap the Atlantic came back through in what may be the largest flood in the planet's history.

    Ink and wash plate of two weathered classical columns standing in coastal scrub above a grey sea: the Pillars of Hercules, with the horizon behind them empty.
  2. 2

    Gorham's Cave Viewing Platform

    60 m approx.

    Somebody scratched a deliberate cross-hatch into that cave floor 39,000 years ago. Nobody knows what it means.

    Ink and wash plate of the Gorham's Cave complex on the east face: two dark sea-level cave mouths cut into a banded limestone cliff, with surf breaking over the boulders in front of them.
  3. 3

    Europa Point / Harding's Battery / Lighthouse

    20 m approx.

    The end of the continent: a lighthouse, fourteen kilometres of water, Africa, and the only sunset on the Rock you are allowed to stay for.

    Two-page notebook panorama of the Rock of Gibraltar from the west: the sheer north face on the left, the summit ridge running south and dropping to the low tail at Europa Point, the town along the shoreline, sailing boats in the bay and the Spanish coast as a pale band on the right.
  4. 4

    Europa Point Café

    20 m approx. · can be skipped

How sure we are

Every claim on this walk is marked. The Rock has wonderful stories attached to it and some of them are not true, which is more interesting than pretending otherwise.

  • Established

    Sourced and not seriously disputed. If a specialist reads this, they will recognise it.

  • Still argued

    Real evidence on more than one side. We have given you the version most researchers hold, and flagged that it is not settled.

  • Told, not proven

    A story people tell about this place. Worth hearing, worth repeating, and not evidence of anything.