What you are looking at
Gozo is a limestone plateau that has been cut to pieces by valleys. The flat-topped hills (Ta’ Dbieġi, the Qortin above Nadur, Ta’ Ċenċ behind Sannat) are what is left of the original surface. Everything between them has either been eroded away or terraced into fields.
That terracing is the thing worth understanding, because it is the landscape. There is almost no natural flat ground on this island. Every level field you see is held up by a dry stone wall that somebody built and somebody still maintains, and the pattern of them is centuries old.
The walls are called ħitan tas-sejjieħ. They are built without mortar, which is not primitive but deliberate: water passes through rather than building up behind and pushing the wall out. They are legally protected, and more to the point they are private property and a great deal of work. Walking beside them is fine. Climbing on them is not.
The walks worth doing
The south cliffs: Mġarr ix-Xini to Xlendi. Out of the inlet, up on to the Ta’ Ċenċ plateau, along the top of the highest cliffs on the island, past the Sanap cliffs and down into Xlendi. Exposed the whole way, no shade, no water, and the finest thing on Gozo in February. The plateau is garigue rather than farmland, which is why it looks bare; that bareness is a habitat, not neglect.
The north coast: Marsalforn to Wied il-Għasri. West along the salt pans at Qbajjar and Xwejni, past Reqqa Point, and down into the narrow cleft at Wied il-Għasri. Shorter and gentler than the south, and the most interesting shoreline on the island: the pans are still worked, the rock is weathered into shapes, and the inlet at the end is a crack in the cliff with a beach at the bottom of it.
Wied il-Mielaħ. The arch on the north-west coast, which does the thing the Azure Window used to do and gets a fraction of the visitors. Short walk from the parking.
The Xagħra plateau to Ramla. Across the fields from the top, down past the Mixta cave, and out on to the red sand. The view back up from the beach, and the view down from the cave mouth, are the two best-known compositions on the island for good reason.
When not to
July and August, in the middle of the day. This is not fussiness. There is no shade on any of these routes, no water on them, and no shelter if you misjudge it. The cliff walks in particular are a long way from a road.
Spring and autumn are comfortable. Winter is excellent, and the island is at its best in late November and December when the rain has brought everything back and the fields are properly green. It is a thing most visitors never see, because they come in August and reasonably conclude that Gozo is brown.
What grows here
Carob and olive, prickly pear along every wall and track, and in spring a short, intense wildflower season across the garigue. The valley floors hold citrus and vegetables where there is water. Capers grow out of the walls themselves.
The garigue on Ta’ Ċenċ and the exposed plateaus looks like waste ground and is not: it is a protected habitat with its own plants, and several stretches of the Gozitan coast and countryside are designated Natura 2000 sites.
Manners
Most of the land you walk past is somebody’s. The paths are generally rights of way or long-accepted routes, but the fields beside them are worked.
Gates get left as you found them. Walls do not get climbed. Dogs go on a lead anywhere near livestock, and there is more livestock here than the landscape suggests. And in the open seasons, when you can hear shooting from the hillside, keeping to the track is both the safe thing and the polite one.
Elsewhere on the island
- Practical Getting to Gozo, and getting around once you are there The car ferry, the fast ferry from Valletta, the buses that all go through Victoria, and whether you actually need a car. Including the fare quirk that catches everyone once.
- Crafts & artists Crafts and makers on Gozo Lace, filigree, blown glass and pottery, the crafts village at Ta’ Dbieġi, and how to tell what was made on the island from what was flown in to be sold here.
- History & heritage Gozo’s history, from Ġgantija to the Ċittadella Temples older than the pyramids, a citadel whose population was carried off in a single raid, a windmill from 1725 and a lighthouse on the highest hill. What is actually worth your time.
Questions
When is the best time to walk in Gozo?
Between November and April, and the first half of that is the best of it: the countryside is green from the autumn rain, the light is long, and you can walk at midday without consequence. By late May the green has gone and by July the same walk is a different proposition entirely. There is no shade on any of the cliff routes and no water on them either.
What are the dry stone walls for?
They hold the soil on. Gozo is terraced almost everywhere that is not rock, and each terrace is retained by a wall built without mortar, which lets water through rather than damming it behind. They are called ħitan tas-sejjieħ, they are protected, and they are somebody's property and somebody's work. Do not climb on them: a wall that takes a day to build takes a moment to pull down.
Can you walk the Gozo coast all the way round?
In practice yes, in sections, though there is no single waymarked coastal path and some stretches run along field edges rather than a trail. The south, from Mġarr ix-Xini along Ta’ Ċenċ and the Sanap cliffs to Xlendi, is the most dramatic and the most exposed. The north from Marsalforn west past the salt pans to Wied il-Għasri is the easiest to do in an afternoon.
Is there hunting and trapping in the Gozo countryside?
Yes, in season, and you will see the stone hides and the netted clearings all year. Open seasons are set nationally and vary. In practice it means some tracks are posted as private during those weeks, you may hear shooting in the early morning, and the courteous thing is to keep to the paths and not walk into a clearing that is obviously set up. It is a live political argument in Malta and not one this page is going to settle for you.
Are the cliff edges fenced?
No. Ta’ Ċenċ, Sanap, the Dwejra headland and the Għarb coast are all open to the edge, the rock is friable in places, and the wind at the top is stronger than at the car. This is the one genuine danger in the Gozitan countryside and it is worth taking seriously with children and in a strong majjistral.