The Deilão’s valley is located in the heart of the Montanhas Mágicas®, a place so wildand remote that there is almost no artificial light, allowing the contemplation of the Milky Way as rarely seen. The Deilão is a tributary of the Paiva river that is born at São Macário’s peaks, between the more resistant quartzite crests, coincident with the Ameixiosa mountain in the right margin and the Livrarias (geologic libraries) of Pena, Covas do Rio and Fragoselas in left margin. It is an ecological system that grows a 700 meters height difference in about 7.5 kilometers, giving birth to a river mountain in winter that almost dries during summer. Close to Covas do Rio village stands a very particular geological phenomenon that originated large and chunky Pedras Cebola (onion stones).
The river Deilão is refuge to various protected species such as the gold-striped salamander and the pyrenean desman having here exceptional conditions to develop. The riparian gallery is very well preserved and, further upstream, is dominated by black poplars while, further downstream, the black alders predominate. In these wild waters, trouts, portuguese nase, northern iberian chub and barbel have the perfect habitat to reproduce. The viperine water snake, the iberian newt and the iberian emerald lizard are often seen here. Along the quartzite ridges escarpments you can observe the peregrine falcon and other birds of prey; along the tributaries rivers of Deilão river there are countless species of flora that thrive, such as the common holly, the Portugal laurel, rocky germander or angel’s tears. In quartzite of Fragoselas we can observe ichnofossils, fossil tracks of trilobites with more than 480 million years. In its vicinity, the acute stones tear the landscape as a result of the schist layers weathering.
The villages of Covas do Rio, Deilão, Campo Grande and Fragoselas mark an ancestral occupation of the valley, with more than 1000 years of history. The houses are mostly made of schist with slate roofs, and the main occupation is the agriculture and livestock.
