Smallest of the Canary Islands, only 107 square miles in area, Hierro is also the most remote, lying 33 miles south-west of Gomera. Ancient Arab geographers and medieval Europe set 0° Longitude at Hierro’s westernmost headland of Punta Orchilla, and this was long considered to be the edge of the world; it was only in 1884 that the world finally agreed 0° Longitude should run through Greenwich. Even today Hierro remains an isolated outpost of Europe, just like its neighbour archipelago – The Azores Islands. Despite having a small airport; the coastline is steep and rocky, lacking in natural anchorages, and it was this that caused Spanish conquistadores to turn away in favour of Gomera, La Palma and the other islands even through Hierro was one of the first of the Canaries to be conquered. A parador has been built on the east coast but it has not yet opened and the only accommodation at present consists of a handful of 1 or 2-star guest houses.
Yet Hierro does have its attractions quite apart from the refreshing lack of commercialism. The scenery is beautiful, though quite different from any of the other islands. From the steep coastline the hills reach to a long semicircular ridge curving round El Golfo, the wide north-western bay that is the submerged basin of an ancient crater, the slopes covered in dense forests and upland pastures dotted with goats grazing among wild flowers. The island’s volcanic origins are very obvious in the numerous cones and lava flows, especially round Restinga in the south and near the capital, Valverde, in the north, though there have been no major eruptions here in many years. As the tourist brochures say, ‘It’s an ideal place for peaceful vacations and close communication with Nature.’
Jean de Bethencourt’s early expeditions included a brief excursion to Hierro in 1405. Apparently there were very few Guanches, they were called Bimbaches here, the native population having already been decimated by Moorish slave traders, and when he arrived at the present-day Bahia de Naos in southern Hierro, the Guanche King Armiche and his companions promptly surrendered to him and were enslaved. First colonized by the Norman families who’d come with Bethencourt, Hierro’s capital was soon established at Valverde. Some forty years later the island was inherited by the Counts of Gomera, Fernan Peraza and his descendants, and it became one of the islas de sefforio,like Gomera, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. The island’s name is thought to derive from a native word, hero or ecero, meaning ‘strong’, though some authorities claim it to be a corruption of Herrera, the name of one of the first Counts of Gomera.
But Hierro never attained the importance of those other islands, due principally to the inaccessible coastline. Throughout the centuries, Hierro and its capital remained isolated and undeveloped, with consequently few of the colonial mansions or other man-made monuments to compare with the rest of the Canaries.
(wikimedia)
