Quinta Rosana

The descent into Faro airport over the massed rooftops of the Algarve is daunting for anyone hoping for a secluded holiday. One glance down at the long coastline that Portugal tilts east-west to the sun suggests mass tourism, crowded bars and beach revellers vying for an empty patch of sand. Not so. Drive west from Lagos and coastline sheds marks of intensive development and becomes inalienable National Park, the Parque Natural da Costa Vicentina, safe from the developer's drawing board. Wild acres of rolling nature and a granite coastline, a holy place once regarded as the end of the known world, offer a very different land and seascape.

Quinta Rosana, a delightful and secluded mansion in the Portuguese style, lies in the heart of this quiet wilderness yet within easy reach of the ancient town of Vila do Bispo. The house is surrounded by woodland; a single-storey spread of elegant rooms with a rooftop terrace that could be the bridge of a ship cruising through a sea of rolling green countryside. The greenery suggested rain and the rain it duly did! Great armadas of thundering cumulus, pouring in from the Atlantic added yet more drama to an already dramatic setting. An aviator would call it an unstable sky but bright sunshine is rarely slow to return in this part of the world, turning the wet earth to steam and unlocking a profusion of scents.

The house is luxuriously furnished and generously equipped. An impressively stocked bar has an honesty book in which to record rounds and for further relaxation there's a Jacuzzi in the lounge area and a Sauna on the lower terrace. Quinta Rosana has potentially space for 15 guests with full kitchen facilities for eating in if that is preferred to exploring the excellent local restaurants in Vila da Bispo or Sagres.

The immediate countryside has plenty of entertaining wildlife and on the cusp of springtime we spotted possibly a honey buzzard, numerous moorland birds and a flock of golden orioles. The sea is close by in several directions with more than a dozen often quiet or even deserted beaches to choose from, according to which way the wind happens to be blowing. Sagres is a working fishing and boat building port where wood appears still to be the favourite material and close by, where locals perch perilously on cliff tops to cast long lines into the sea far below, Prince Henry the Navigator founded his school teaching navigation skills to 15th century sea captains. This famous fortress institution, which maintains Henry's huge compass rose carefully picked out in rocks within its walls, helped extend navigation beyond the known to the unknown world. And beyond lies Cape St Vincent, a sacred promontory since Neolithic times, the rugged tip of Europe where every dusk a 1000 watt lamp begins a sweep of the sea that is visible for more than 30 miles. It is a place of powerful atmosphere famous for fierce sea battles, where Captain Horatio Nelson, out-gunned and out-numbered by Spanish warships, took a stride towards history helping to win the Battle of St Vincent in 1797. Indeed, within a light's sweep of Quinta Rosana there is much to enthral, dwell upon and enjoy.

By Ronald Faux, journalist, formerly with The Times London