Rock of Gibraltar

Gibraltar: Smaller Than You Think, More Interesting Than You Expect

Gibraltar is 6.7 square kilometres. This is a number that doesn’t fully resolve until you are walking across it and realise you’ve covered it corner to corner in 40 minutes. The Rock itself – a 426-metre limestone promontory where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean – dominates everything so completely that the territory is essentially the Rock with a city at its base. You can see Morocco from the southern tip, 14 kilometres across the Strait. On clear days you can watch tankers and container ships queuing to transit one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

It is a British Overseas Territory with red phone boxes, sterling currency, fish and chips on Main Street, and Barbary macaques. The combination is genuinely peculiar.

Getting In

From Spain, park in La Linea de la Concepcion (free parking near the border) and walk across. Driving into Gibraltar involves crossing an active airport runway at grade – cars and pedestrians wait while aircraft use it, then proceed. This is exactly as strange as it sounds. On foot the border crossing takes five minutes; by car during rush hour it can take an hour. Have your passport ready.

The Upper Rock

The cable car from Rosia Road reaches the summit in five minutes. The round trip is about GBP 15 for adults. The Upper Rock Nature Reserve ticket includes St Michael’s Cave, the Great Siege Tunnels, and access to the macaque viewing areas.

The macaques are the most photographed thing in Gibraltar and they are also the most persistent if you carry food. They will take a bag from your hand without hesitation. Put food away before you get near them. Ignore vendors selling peanuts to feed them.

St Michael’s Cave is a natural limestone cavern with stalactites and stalagmites, occasionally used as a concert venue. The upper cave is the standard route; the lower cave system, only accessible on separate guided tours, is considerably more dramatic.

The Great Siege Tunnels were carved by hand during the 1779 to 1783 siege by Spain and France, when Gibraltar withstood three and a half years of bombardment. The tunnels allowed defenders to position cannon at angles that should have been impossible. The WWII tunnel network, bored later and vast enough to have housed an entire underground military base, runs on selected tour days.

Europa Point at the southern tip has the lighthouse, the Ibrahim Al-Ibrahim Mosque (opened in 1997), and on clear days a view of the Moroccan coast that makes the strategic importance of the location immediately legible.

Main Street and Town

Gibraltar’s town centre is one pedestrian street with duty-free tobacco and alcohol attracting Spanish day-trippers. Calentita – a baked chickpea flour cake sold in wedges from market stalls – is the local specialty and is better than the description suggests. Casemates Square at the north end is the social hub with outdoor cafe and bar seating.

Where to Eat and Stay

Remo’s on Ocean Village is well-regarded for grilled fish and seafood. The Clipper on Irish Town does a solid full English breakfast. Budget accommodation is far better found in La Linea on the Spanish side – 10 minutes’ walk from the border and a fraction of Gibraltar’s prices. The Rock Hotel, a colonial-era property partway up the Rock with a pool, is the landmark accommodation option on the territory itself.