If you'd like to get a real sense of the landscape that surrounds the moinho, you can't beat the view from Castelo Velho do Caratão - a short (but steep!) walk from the property. A 15-20 minute hike from the windmill, this is the site of a defensive fortress built during the Neolithic period, at 250 metres altitude, overlooking the nearby rivers Eiras, Aziral and Caratão, which converge at the base of the windmill (our 'swimming spot' and also the site of an abandoned watermill, just on the other side of the river). We'd highly recommend making the climb in time to catch the sun going down over the whole valley.
There's nothing left of the 'castle' to see, unfortunately, except the rocks it would have sat on, but the site was first recognised in the 1940s, and over the next few decades finds included agricultural tools, swords and arrowheads, and even equipment related to goldsmithing - the village of Caratão gets its name from the same root as 'carat', relating to the gold found in the river here. In fact, you may still see people panning for gold on the banks nearby! You can see many of the artifacts originally discovered at the site in our impressive town museum, the 'Museu de Arte Pré-Histórica' in Mação.
The site is part of the longer PR7 walking route, which can be joined very close to the moinho.
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