Cala Pi

Cala Pi is on the southern coast of Mallorca, in the municipality of Llucmajor, where a short ravine meets the sea. The inlet is narrow — perhaps fifty metres across — and runs several hundred metres inland between limestone walls, with a small beach at its head.

Its form is the interest. The southern coast of Mallorca is a low limestone plateau cut by short, steep ravines called barrancs; where one reaches the sea it leaves an inlet like this, more corridor than bay. Traditional boathouses — escars — are cut into the rock along the sides, with wooden ramps into the water, and they are still used. A seventeenth-century watchtower stands on the headland above.

The beach at the head is fine pale sand, sheltered from almost every direction by the walls, with calm shallow water. Because the inlet is narrow, the sun reaches the sand for a limited part of the day and the beach is in shadow by mid-afternoon in the shoulder seasons. Access is a stone stair of around a hundred and fifty steps from the village above.

Development is a small residential area at the top with apartments, a shop and restaurants, and nothing at all on the sand. Parking is limited and the surrounding streets fill in summer. The coastal path south toward Cap Blanc runs along the cliff top for kilometres with no descent to the water anywhere, which is what makes this one inlet matter: it is the only break in a wall of rock.

A corridor of water between two walls, with boat houses cut into the rock and still in use. A hundred and fifty steps down and the same back up. The sun leaves the sand by mid-afternoon outside high summer, which is either the point or the problem depending on the month.