A thousand meters above sea level in the northwest of the island with the Mediterranean Sea sparkling in the distance, you find yourself in a very different Majorca to the coastal strip's bars.

It's an island that offers some of the most accessible, varied, rewarding and breathtakingly beautiful hiking terrain in Europe.

Hiking first to Stanford’s – London’s foremost map and guide bookshop – I was astonished to find the number and range of books devoted to walking in Mallorca.

Just published is Dry Stone Route about the 90 kilometre path, much of which dates back to the Moorish occupation of the island, on which you can walk the length of the island, as well as Holiday Walks in the Discovery Walking Guide series which describes two-hour “very easy” ambles up to five-hour “strenuous” climbs.

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Living in Barcelona, I am more likely to enjoy a short ramble down the Rambla as my exercise these days, so I set out cautiously.

I booked into a small hotel in the village of Fornalutx in the Soller valley which is filled with orange and lemon groves and surrounded by the impressive peaks of the Sierra Tramuntana. The owners are British, keen walkers and they helped me map out a week, with easy walks to break me in and culminating in one of the most challenging climbs the island has to offer.

I was recommended to make my first day 'orientation day' - a 40-minute hike up to the Mirador des Barques from where you can see the tree-filled Soller Valley stretch down towards the Port of Soller.

In Mallorca all the principal towns are separated from their ports by two or three kilometres – it gave a chance for the locals to fight the invading Moors on the beaches while the townsfolk prepared for the attack on the main source of power and wealth.

It took just two hours to walk down to the port itself on dirt and cobbled paths, zigzagging past farm buildings, some in ruins and others lived in and providing freshly squeezed orange juice to thirsty walkers.

Arrival at the port offers a tapas lunch, a ride to the town of Soller on the 1913 tram (the rolling stock is the original) and then an hour walk back up to the village of Fornalutx through the olive groves. A perfect first day.

From there I graduated to the island’s best walking region - around Lake Cuber, a manmade reservoir nestling in a basin of the Sierra Tramuntana. During the dry seasons, you can still make out the outline of the settlement which was flooded. A favourite spot for the island’s birds, you can see falcons, ospreys, black vultures with a near three metre wing span and even eagles circling the peaks.

I like circular walks and Lake Cuber offers one of the best. A rugged, steep downhill path leads to the first of a network of tunnels which house the irrigation pipes bringing freshwater from the mountains into the reservoir. You need stout boots and torches to make you way through the five tunnels which are dark and uneven. As you emerge from each, the scenery is breathtaking – wild, unkempt, often deserted and, seemingly, a million miles from Magaluf.

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