Lorca beaches: from Cala de Gruta to Cala Honda and the Cala de San Pedro

Spectacular landscapes and an official nudist beach at La Junquera

The 9-kilometre coastline of Lorca includes over a dozen beaches, and most of them are characterized by the rugged features of the cliffs and rocks constituting the lower slopes of the mountains of the Loma de Bas. These provide spectacular backdrops from Puntas de Calnegre in the north-east, on the boundary with Mazarrón, to Playa Larga, which is very close to the municipality of Águilas in the south-west.

This landscape is at times a stunning one, but it does mean that some of the beaches in the middle of the Lorca coastline are fairly inaccessible except to those approaching by boat or to committed hikers, mountain bikers and those who are willing to put four-by-four vehicles to a fairly severe test. Even some of those which can be reached by car are sparsely used due to their location, making them popular with nudists, but the beaches listed below certainly fall into the categories of “isolated” and “unspoilt”, and no services are provided at any of them.

Working from Cala Leña in the south-west towards Calnegre the beaches concerned are the following:

Cala de la Gruta: 40 metres long and 8 metres wide, a short stretch of stony beach in the nature reserve of Loma de Bas, backed by the mountains.

Cala Junquera: almost alongside Cala de la Gruta this is another 40-metre-long beach, officially described as featuring sand, pebbles and rocks. As of May 2018 this is officially recognized as the only nudist beach in the municipality of Lorca.

Playa del Pelo: at only 20 metres in length this little cove is the furthest Lorca beach from easy motor vehicle access. Again it lies within the protected area of the Lorca coastline and the sandy surface is unspoilt by any signs of human activity. Rather surprisingly, though, on the headland above the beach is an abandoned old armed forces or Guardia Civil station, surely one of the loneliest destinations for military personnel in the Region of Murcia when it was in service!

Playa Baja Mar: a far longer stretch of beach at 300 metres, but again difficult to access due to its location on this craggy part of the coastline. The surface of the beach is classified as sandy.

Cala Honda: A gorgeous cove lying at the bottom of one of the natural run-off channels down which water rushes into the Mediterranean in times of heavy rain, but unfortunately the condition of the track leading from Calnegre worsens considerably after Cala Siscal, making this beach relatively inaccessible. The surface is listed as a mixture of sand and fine gravel, and due to the accumulated deposits from the runoff channel a small delta has been formed, giving it a breadth of 20 metres despite its being only 100 metres long.

Although only one of the above beaches is listed as being reserved for nudists, inevitably they all attract the kind of beachgoer who prefers to dispense with swimwear.

In 2017 it was reported that the Town Hall of Lorca was considering designating a different official nudist beach, and the one in the spotlight was the Cala de San Pedro. This is another difficult-to-reach cove, located between Cala Siscal and the Baño de las Mujeres, which again is normally accessed either by boat or by committed walkers equipped with sturdy footwear: listed as being 30 metres long, it is only just around the headland from Cala Siscal, but there is no recognizable or signposted track leading to it.

For more local information visit the home page of Lorca Today.