O Suído Range figures in the Complementary and Subsidiary Regulations for the Planning of the Province of Pontevedra as a Natural Reserve.

From the Pico de Avión, Xuarquiña, Lomba da Serra, Chan de Lama, Coto Bidueiros, Portiño Oscuro, you can see the most beautiful views in the municipality spreading out below your feet.

From the heights we can see valleys that seem to be cut into rectangles and painted in different shades of green. Some of the native forests, as we can see from the peak of A Guía de Piñeiro, are ideal places for leisure.

O Suído Range forms a natural border between the provinces of Ourense and Pontevedra. It covers part of the municipalities of Avion and Beariz in Ourense and A Lama, Fornelos de Montes and Covelo in Pontevedra. The ridges or high plains make it difficult to mark the exact jurisdictional provincial boundaries, so this was long a source of legal disputes between the Counts of Rivadavia and those of Soutomaior, the overlords of the region. Various stages of the Santo Domingo way are taken as the current provincial boundary.

It covers an area of almost 200 square kilometres. It forms part of a mountain range that divides the Galician region in two. In the east there is Miño, in the south it opens into the Mondariz Valley, Monte Pedroso and the Faro de Avión; and to the north it continues into the Paraño with Testeiro Range.

The average altitude is around 800 metres although there are a lot of areas over 900 metres and some peaks of 1000 metres .

There are extensive cattle raising and wolves.

Here we can still find the mythical predator for all the villages of these valleys: the wolf. In As Chans do Suído there is still a trace of the abundance of this animal in the form of a trap intended for its capture and elimination. We can also find constructions known as “chozos” that are stone-enclosed areas for keeping the cows with their calves that formerly used to graze on the mountainside. These circular structures contain a primitive hut in the middle to house the cowherds who were employed to look after the cows that belonged to owners from different parishes of the region and even those from further away (the cattle were moved from winter to summer pastures and there were historical rights to pasturage in all these areas)

In the “Foxos do Lobo”, constructions built to eliminate the predator, two walls forming a “V” starting in a narrow mouth, grow in height and come together until they end in a deep trench (3- 4 metres ).. The farmers, beating the area and making a lot of noise drove the wolves towards this high stone channel until they were forced, by stone throwing and long wooden forks carried by the beaters, to jump into the ditch. Once in the ditch and unable to escape they were killed by stoning or stabbed by the forks. There are identical traps in the Serra Xeres National Park, which have been restored and now form part of the Portuguese tourist routes.

The current abundance of cattle leads to a similar albeit less selective persecution.

Some people hold the idea that places like el Pena Forcada (Hanged man rock) show us ancient customs regarding the treatment handed out to cattle rustlers in the area.

THE “CHOZOS”