The old chestnut tree of Cotanillo is a forest colossus, experts attribute to the ancient specimen of Castanea sativa more than three centuries of life, it is the largest and longest-lived chestnut tree in the province of Madrid, where there are very few chestnut trees with the environmental quality and density of centennial specimens that have the beautiful chestnut groves that populate the slopes of the summits of Las Machotas, in the mountain municipality of Zarzalejo. In the area of the Fuente del Rey another chestnut tree grows with a singular appearance and more than two centuries old, which is also included in the catalog of singular trees of the Community of Madrid.

Translated by Google •

Juanjo Alonso Kapi

March 19, 2022

The chestnut tree of Cotanillo is on the first terrace of the ravine, marked with the milestone of the inventory of singular trees of the Community of Madrid, which includes 283 living beings from the forest kingdom, among them the longest-lived tree on the Iberian Peninsula, a yew of thousand three hundred years living in the municipality of Rascafría. The chestnut tree of Cotanillo is 26 meters high and 320 years old, a venerable and ancient vegetable character of the Madrid mountains. In 2015 it has undergone a notable pruning to remove dead branches and damaged by age but it remains a respectable and admired giant in the valuable chestnut groves of Zarzalejo. To follow the route, you have to leave the valley where the old chestnut tree lives to the west, climb the small hillside to a copse of pines and go down to a gate on a rural road that descends towards the town.

Translated by Google •

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Elevation 1,300 m

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Location: Zarzalejo, Guadarrama, Madrid, Spain

Cotanillo Chestnut

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