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| ethical accommodation |
Quinta do Barranco da Estrada
property
description:
A small intimate retreat for peace and relaxation. Traditional hospitality & international home cooking to cordon bleu
standard. A beautiful lakeside location with
watersports. Surrounded by wild, untouched countryside with a wide variety of wildlife
& rare birds. A selection of professional speciality courses. accommodation & facilities:
6
double en suite bedrooms 1
Suite Drawing
room with bar and open fire Breakfast,
lunch, & dinner available Secluded
lawns and terraces Two
acres of terraced fruit and flower gardens The
whole Quinta leads onto the lake with stunning views over one of Europe
’s largest and cleanest fresh water lakes.
Ideal for Families Stress
relief Honeymoon
couples Romantic
Rendezvous Company
Incentive Destination Small
special interest groups Rental
as a fully catered villa Film
Location The Quinta provides a flexible personalised
service, which enjoys responding to individual needs. activities: Walking - A vast sparsely populated countryside
dotted with small Alentejan "montes" set Wildlife
- The local area is a haven for wildlife of all descriptions including
many rare Boating
- Exploring the lake by canoe, rowing boat, sailing dinghy or small
out-board. Swimming
- The unpolluted crystal clear waters of the lake are a rare luxury. Mountain
biking - The numerous tracks and absence of traffic provide the ultimate
thrill for serious mountain bikers. Fishing
- An excellent sport fishing opportunity. Cooking
- The Quinta is renowned for
its cordon bleu cuisine, and there are Cookery location:
Baixo Alentejo , Portugal. As the crow flies, 35 km
from the West coast and 50 km from the South. Two
and a half hours by car from either bridge in Lisbon One
and a half hours by car from Faro Airport . By
train to Santa Clara . >From there, there is a collection service
available which either drives all the way in through spectacular
countryside or alternatively drives up to the other side of the lake for a
small boat trip directly to the door. a
brief history: The buildings at Quinta do
Barranco da Estrada have all been built since the lake was made. The dam
was finished in '69, and the first building was raised in '74. This
original wooden construction is now part of the Quinta's private side, and
was a two storey "log cabin". Several years later the property was sold and the new
owner built another two pre-fab wooden buildings, of which the first is
now part of the Drawing Room/Kitchen while the second makes up five of our
Guest's bedrooms. At some point the Summer house/ Sauna was built as a
generator shed. Lulu, a Teacher by profession, and Frank, a Despatch
Rider, first came to Portugal on their honeymoon over Christmas '86, fell
in love with the country and decided to move here. They returned in April
of '87, and first found the Quinta in July. At this point there was no
track to the Quinta, and with no garden apart from a couple of cacti, it
really was a few shacks in the middle of nowhere, but they saw the
potential and had bought it by September. They returned during August to
the UK to pack their possessions into a Double Decker bus, with which they
pretended to tour the world in order to "import" their
belongings, (including Sir Howard's mother), to their new home. With the help of friends and their first employees here,
Antonio the Gardener and Ana Paula the 12 year old maid, the Quinta opened
its doors to its first guests during the Spring
of '88. Since that first opening the business that the Quinta generates
has fuelled its expansion, and it has never received a grant or financial
assistance of any kind from either the EEC or the Portuguese state. Apart from some alterations to their private side, there
was no construction or re-construction of any buildings until '91, as the
new owners concentrated on making a garden. This was complicated by
various catastrophes such as landslides etc and a total lack of finance,
so most work was done manually. With no electricity to speak of it was
pointless having electrical machines anyway, and their tool chest when
they arrived contained only a drill and a set of motor-cycle spanners. The buildings, (parts of which by now were over seventeen
years old), were still illegal, having been constructed clandestinely and
in wood and therefore "temporary". Since '87 the new owners had
been trying to get planning permission in order to legalise the property,
and after some initial "misunderstandings" this was granted in
'93, and legal building could commence. Obviously there were some alterations prior to the formal
granting of the building license, and since '91 the main construction of
the Quinta as it now appears has been taking place; a workshop,
underpinning the original building, re-plumbing throughout and
construction of waste disposal system, bathrooms on to every Guest room,
Electrification of the property, Office and Staff Quarters, Extension of
the Drawing Room, Javali and Borbaletta, expansion of the Private side,
Garage and Power complex, Sauna have all been achieved, and in December of
2000 the Quinta was finally given, for the first time, a Licença de
Habitação, the official document that certifies a buildings legal existence. During this time Portugal itself was changing and
especially the region surrounding the Quinta. The two factors of entry
into the EEC and a more stable political climate than that immediately
following the Carnation Revolution of '74 had brought about a blossoming
of the country's economic progress, and it continues to rush wildly
towards the sunlit uplands. For example in '87 an international call,
while relatively without hassle in the more advanced Algarve, could still
take a morning to achieve in this area; (this wasn't helped by the nearest
phone being four kms away). Now, less than fifteen years later, Portugal's
per capita ownership of mobile phones is one of the highest in the world,
and the terrestrial phone service has improved to the point where 90% of
the Quinta's communications are done by email. (The absence of a telephone
here until 1990 made life interesting; during this time, as the track in
to the Quinta stretched, well pot-holed, from Santa Clara, the Quinta's
guests used to flash mirrors from the dam wall to request pick up by
boat). The donkey and cart, in '87 the primary source of
transportation in the locality, are now rare; even mopeds are rapidly
giving way to cars. Roads are being built and it won't be long until
there's a motorway stretching from Lisbon all the way to the Algarve,
which has exploded in the last twenty five years from a forgotten land of
sleepy villages to a villa-encrusted playground. Everywhere there seems to
be construction on an unprecedented scale, renovating and replacing the
old and building the new. Some things never change though and the
logistics of the Quinta remain a juggler's dream, such as the nearest
rubbish bin still being eight miles away (with the bottle bank a mere 45
minutes), but it’s a big improvement from the nearest petrol station
being an hour and a quarter distant, as it still was in 1990. During these years it was not only Portugal that was expanding around the
Quinta as the McClintock family grew to include Archie in '88, Araby in
'89 and Alexandra in '92. After a local education for the first years,
followed by a period in the Algarve, they have now all moved to an
International school near Lisbon, from where they return most weekends and
during the holidays. prices:
All prices are quoted in euros
changeover day: No specific day for change over contact details: Frank & Lulu McClintock Tel. (+351) 283 933065 |
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if you are traveling somewhere remote, or to a country with an unstable political climate, please check the travel advice section first |
