Natural shelters: man, stone and nature working together.

In Corsican they are referred to as grotta, oriu, casaronu or baracoun; elsewhere as borie, orys, obos, kerkours - natural shelters built by man and to be found in quantity in the Pietracorbara valley. Shale, of which there is an abundance, provides the large stone plates shepherds have used as nature's roofs, and around which they have built walls of dried mud and stone to create improvised sheepfolds or shelters on the mountain. Some have even taken advantage of nature's bounty by reinforcing the walls of existing cutaways or caves in the rock with stone. Troglodyte dwellings, seasonal shelters, set away from the hamlets, these grottos or grotte, as they are called in Corsican, are quite numerous throughout the valley and are often well conserved. They are generally located high up on the mountains, in goat grazing areas.

How to get there?

A sheepfold in ruins, above Striaghju.

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