Setenil de las Bodegas, With a population of some 3000 and lying between the towns of Ronda and Olvera in the province of Cadiz, this is another of Andalucia’s famous pueblo blanco. But where most tumble down from Moorish castles built on secure bluffs and peaks, Setenil has been set in and around a prehistoric limestone gorge, the foot of which is lined on both sides of the Rio Trejo with troglodytic cave dwellings. The usual warren of narrow streets radiates upwards from the focal points of Calles de las Cuevas del Sol and de las Cuevas de la Sombra named with unerring logic after the cave houses on the sunny and shady sides of the river. Most of the caves have, of course, been residentially developed with typical frontages, though plenty of them have been transformed, to the relief of tourists, into riverside cafes.

I’ve always been interested in the roots of place names. More often than not local topography is the main influence with the language of original settlers making reference to, say, “the place at the river crossing” or “the town in the wood”; but Setenil is in a class of its own. The Latin “septem nihil” is thought to be the source of the first part of the name. It means “seven times nothing” and possibly refers to a series of failed attacks on the settlement. The “Bodegas” (“Warehouses”) element dates from the 15th century when the re-conquering Christians began cultivating and storing olives and almonds, and developed wineries. So we have “Seven Times Nothing of the Warehouses”; you couldn’t make it up.

There is a Moorish castle, albeit ruined, and other buildings of interest include the 16th century gothic Church of Our Lady of the Incarnation, the contemporaneous Old Consistorial House, and the later hermitages of Our lady of the Carmen and of San Benito. The earlier Hermitage of San Sebastion on the outskirts of the town is the first Christian construction in the area. The tourist office situated in the upper town on Calle Villa is in itself a tourist attraction, being housed in a medieval building complete with an exquisitely coloured Moorish ceiling. At certain times of the year visits to some of the cave houses can be arranged through the tourist office. The telephone number is 956134261.

Local pork products including chorizo and sausage have a good reputation, as have pies and pastries made in the town. The vineyards of Setenil were decimated - along with much of Europe’s vine stock – during the phylloxera insect infestation of the late 1800s, but since 1991 the Cortijo de las Monjas, located just off the Setenil - Ronda road, has been producing a fine red wine named after the bodega’s founder, Prince Alfonso de Hohenlohe.

Setenil is a picturesque location, unique amongst the white villages of Andalucia for its cave houses and the scenery of its gorge. A day out in the Ronda area is incomplete without a visit to it.