Praia do Barril
Island beach
Praia do Barril is a barrier island beach in the eastern Algarve, part of the Ria Formosa Natural Park, reached from the village of Pedras d'El Rei near Tavira. The access route is one of the most distinctive and memorable of any Algarve beach: a narrow-gauge miniature railway carries visitors across the salt marshes and mudflats of the Ria Formosa, the little open-sided carriages rattling over a wooden bridge spanning the main lagoon channel. The journey takes about five minutes, or the same route can be walked in fifteen to twenty minutes along a parallel boardwalk that crosses the marshes.
At the far end of the railway, the former tuna fishing village of Barril sits on the inner shore of the barrier island. The village was abandoned when the tuna fishery collapsed in the 1960s and 1970s, the bluefin stocks having been decimated by over-fishing across the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic. The buildings have been partially restored and now house restaurants, a bar and beach facilities. The most photographed feature is the Anchor Cemetery, a collection of large tuna boat anchors arranged upright in the sand among the dunes. The anchors, rusted to a deep reddish-brown, stand in rows like a memorial to the lost industry, and the site is both poignant and visually striking, the iron forms set against the pale sand and the blue sky.
Beyond the old village, a boardwalk crosses the low dunes, passing through scrub vegetation and maritime grasses, to reach the ocean beach. The sand is fine, white and expansive, stretching for kilometres in both directions with no buildings, no roads and no development in sight. The water is warm by Algarve standards, the shallow lagoon and the south-facing aspect combining to produce comfortable swimming temperatures from June well into October. The seabed is uniformly sandy and slopes gently, and the waves are typically modest, making this a safe and easy beach for families. Lifeguards cover the main bathing area in summer.
The Ria Formosa lagoon behind the island is a landscape of salt marsh, tidal channels and mudflats that supports an extraordinary variety of birdlife. Flamingos, spoonbills, avocets, terns, plovers and a host of wading birds use the lagoon as feeding and roosting grounds, and the railway crossing and the boardwalk offer good birdwatching vantage points. The salt marshes are also home to samphire and other salt-tolerant plants that are harvested locally and served in the restaurants as a traditional accompaniment to grilled fish.
Barril combines natural beauty, historical interest and practical comfort in a way that few Algarve beaches match. The miniature railway, the abandoned fishing village, the anchor cemetery and the vast, clean ocean beach create a sequence of experiences that amounts to considerably more than just a day at the seaside. The eastern Algarve as a whole is quieter and less intensively developed than the central and western sections of the coast, and Barril exemplifies its gentler, more reflective character. The return railway journey in the late afternoon, with the low sun lighting the salt marshes and the birds feeding in the channels, is a fitting end to the day.