Jagged coast ranked alongside top hidden gems in Spain

THIS distinctly jagged beach on Spain’s northern coast was recently chosen alongside nine other places in a ranking of the country’s best hidden gems.

Sakoneta Beach, in the Basque Country province of Guipuzcoa, made it into El Confidencial’s Ten (Almost) Unknown Corners of Spain You Have to Discover table.

The newspaper said the cove, which lies between the towns of Deba and Zumaia, was ‘small and wild’.

When the tide is low a series of jagged rock formations are exposed. They were sculpted by the sea over hundreds of years, creating a geological formation known as flysch.

Flysch refers to a process where channels separated by rocky outcrops are formed in alternating layers of hard and soft stone.

The process is gradual. As the tide comes in and out over several hundred years, new layers are deposited atop existing ones, stacking them until they reach their current height.

Broken fragments of rocks and minerals typically form the bottom of the outcrops, with shale, mudstone and sandstone building up as time goes on.

Other examples of flysch formations can be found near Europe’s Alps and Carpathian mountain ranges as well as in the North American Cordillera chain.

Visitors to Sakoneta can also take a walking route named after the coastline. It starts and finishes in Errotaberri near Deba with walkers taking a looping route past limestone walls, streams and waterfalls.