The Greenway starts from an area known as Los Prados, next to the junction of the old mining railway with the active Renfe line. To get there we first need to find Cazalla-Constantina Renfe station from where we have various options. We can abandon the railway line and take the former Camino de San Nicolás del Puerto (now the local SE-168 road, which has very little traffic). Then, at a recreational area called Isla Margarita, we cross the Rivera de Huéznar river to meet up with a local Green Corridor on the other side. Or we can go a few hundred metres along the A-455 Constantina-Cazalla road and cross a bridge over the Rivera de Huéznar where, directly on our left, is the start of the same Green Corridor.

The above mentioned Green Corridor is some 4.5 km long, bordered by a leafy gallery forest on one side and holm oak groves and pastureland on the other. At the end of the corridor we cross the Rivera de Huéznar again by a practicable ford and reach the Vía Verde, after first crossing under the first stretch of the mining railway in the area we mentioned before, Los Prados.

Km 5.5

From now on our adventure continues on the rail bed of the old mining line. For the first few metres we run alongside the cooling waters of the Rivera del Huéznar, a travelling companion for part of our journey through the Sierra Norte de Sevilla Natural Park.

A little further on we cross the San Nicolás del Puerto road by a level crossing. Recent work to this and similar crossings has reintroduced a distinctly railway flavour: railway sleepers have been embedded in the surface which, apart from encouraging cyclists to slow down, also remind us of the time when trains used to run on our Greenway route. Cork oaks, holm oaks, and rockrose thickets border this first section until Km 5.5 when we arrive at the second level crossing with the same road.

Once over the road we encounter one of the most idyllic spots on our route, where the trail crosses the river by one of the two bridges that have been rebuilt specifically for the Greenway. From there we continue along the old railway route up the Huéznar valley. The climb becomes steeper, and there are 2.5% (1 in 40) inclines for stretches of over 2 km, easy for any walker but a hard climb for the steam locomotives of the past. The climb has its reward: from the top of the valley we can enjoy a superb view of the Rivera del Huéznar river and its surrounding area .

Km 10

At the Los Molinos tunnel (Km 10) our trail parts company with the river. This tunnel (114m long with no lighting, although visibility is not a problem) leads us into an area of gentler countryside of pasture and meadowland as we head towards the village of San Nicolás del Puerto. The station building (Km 11) stands at the entrance to the village and from there we can make a detour into the village itself. We can also take the opportunity to make use of the recreational area next to the source of the river Rivera de Huéznar, which is also an alternative starting point on our Greenway.

Km 16

The remains of hoists, slag heaps, and other mining equipment signal our arrival at the mining area of Cerro del Hierro (Km 15.5). But first we pass through the old mining village, now part of the municipality of San Nicolás, where some of the miners who used to work the mines still live.

Just after entering this area, on our right we can see the local chapel school, which is very British in appearance, no doubt because it was a Scottish company, William Baird & Co. Ltd. of Glasgow, which first mined these deposits in the early 19th century. Engineers and managers of the company used to live close to the mines, as is evidenced by the remains of a number of old houses, which also have a colonial English look to them and are known locally as “The houses of the English”.

However, from a natural beauty point of view, the highlight of this journey (and also the third possible entry point to the Greenway), are the limestone crags of Cerro del Hierro, which rise up majestically to form a spectacular landscape of fanciful rock formations, all angles and sharp edges. The result is an almost magical area, which 550 million years ago was still under the sea.