He was keen to scale the peak even though it was March and he’d been advised that at this time ‘furious winds threaten to sweep away intruders like dry leaves’ …

When Richard and Isabel arrived in Santa Cruz, Yellow Fever was raging in the capital and the couple made straight for La Laguna in a rickety stagecoach which Isabel described as ‘the skeleton of the first vehicle that was ever made’…

It has always struck me that, for an island which for much of its history has held such a strategically important position on the world trade map, there are precious few castles on Tenerife, save for those that plop out of buckets and have flags stuck in them until the tide comes and washes them away[...]

The packed hall of the Presidencia del Gobierno in Santa Cruz was a fitting reflection of the Irish integration into Tenerife life. The 200 seats were soon snapped up and it was standing room only as several generations of inter related Canarian and Irish families gathered for the launch of Los Cologan de Irlanda y [...]

Born in 1626 in Chasna, now Vilaflor, the first half of Hermano Pedro’s life was spent herding goats between Vilaflor and an isolated cave near El Médano.

He came, he saw, albeit with one eye, but never conquered. Admiral Horacio Nelson suffered the loss of his right arm and 226 of his men but is still held in high esteem in Tenerife despite his intention to seize the island. It was 25th July 1797, the British Navy was mighty and Tenerife was [...]

Eyes blazing, nostrils flared and hoofs stamping, well that’s sales season in Santa Cruz but away from the big modern department stores a piece of history and tradition is peeling but proud as it awaits its fate. The last bull fight took place at Plaza de Toros on 18 December 1983, since then the grand [...]

It’s little wonder that so many couples find love in the tropical setting and perpetual sunshine ( okay, almost perpetual) of the Canary Islands.

Although cynics may attribute this in part to the size of the spirit measures, clearly the blame lies at the feet of warm sea breezes [...]

You know what it’s like, you are 98-years-old, weigh 50 tons, you’ve burst your boiler and no one wants you any more. What you really need is some friends. Judging by the enthusiastic school party scampering over the steam ship La Palma, the Correillo (post ship) built on Middlesbrough in 1912 has many friends of [...]

La Montañeta del Fraile (the monk’s hill) is a volcanic cone on the eastern boundary of Los Realejos overlooking La Orotava and Puerto de la Cruz. On the summit, a small white Ermita stands, keeping a lonely vigil over the valley until [...]