- Where
- Atlantic Ocean, 10–17 km off Peniche
(the archipelago; Wikipedia) - Coordinates
- 39.4140° N
9.5080° W - Size
- 1.5 km by 0.8 km
highest point 88 m - People
- No permanent residents
- Protected
- Nature reserve; UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, 2011
- Visitor cap
- 550 at a time
registration and a €3 tax - Getting there
- Summer boats from Peniche
about 20–45 minutes - Best visited
- June to mid-September (the boat season)
The boat bucked all the way out, and then the water went still and clear as glass under pinkish rock. A stone fort squatted on its own little islet below me, joined to the island by a narrow arched bridge, with the sea sucking and breathing in the gap underneath. Gulls shouted from every ledge as I zigzagged down. I crossed slowly, holding my hat.
The short answer
Berlenga Grande is the largest island of the Berlengas, a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic 10 to 17 kilometres off Peniche, in the Oeste region north of Lisbon, by Wikipedia’s figures. It is 1.5 kilometres long and 0.8 wide and rises to 88 metres. It is the only island of the group that has ever been lived on, though no one lives there all year; its only dwellings are fishermen’s houses. The archipelago is a nature reserve, mainly to protect its seabirds, and UNESCO added it to the World Network of Biosphere Reserves in 2011. British sailors once knew the islands as “the Burlings”.
Why it's worth knowing
An island with a headcount. Since 2022 the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF), which runs the reserve, has charged a visitor tax of three euros, and visitors must register beforehand on its BerlengasPass platform; no more than 550 visitors may be on the island at the same time, not counting seasonal residents, service providers and officials, Portuguese press reported in indexed text. The ICNF gives its reason as limiting the effects of tourism on sensitive species and habitats in so small a space. The reserve had 77,586 visitors in 2023, the same reports say.
A fort made from a monastery. In 1513 Hieronymite monks founded a monastery on the island to help shipwrecked sailors, with the support of Queen Eleanor of Viseu, Wikipedia records, but disease, shortages, storms and raids by pirates and privateers drove them out. After Portugal’s war of restoration with Spain began, the council of war ordered the ruins pulled down and their stone used for a fort, planned in 1651 on an islet off the south-east coast. In 1666, still unfinished, it stood against a Spanish fleet in the Battle of the Berlengas; it was completed in 1678, by the inscription over a gate. The Fort of São João Baptista was made into an inn in 1953 and consolidated for visitors in the 1980s.
The field notes
Pink granite
Berlenga Grande and the Estelas islets are pink granite, rich in feldspar, which Wikipedia describes as rare in Europe; the Farilhões-Forcadas group to the north-west is older metamorphic rock, the peaks of an undersea mountain. The granite’s rounded, flat-topped shape points to an old wave-cut platform that once lay under the sea, and erosion along faults has cut caves, arches and narrow clefts. The best known is the Furado Grande, a sea tunnel that runs through the island; two clefts almost cut it in two, giving it a figure-of-eight shape.
A lighthouse and a plan
The island’s lighthouse, which local people call the Duke of Braganza, was built in 1841, Wikipedia records. In 2025 the Portuguese government announced that it wanted to turn the fort into an environmental interpretation centre for the reserve, paid for from the visitor tax and the Environmental Fund, Notícias ao Minuto and the Portugal News reported; the editor found no date for any works.
The fort in its cove, with the mainland coast far across the sea, July 2009.
Photograph: Vitor Oliveira · Forte de São João Baptista - Ilha da Berlenga - Portugal (3749831879) · CC BY-SA 2.0 · cropped
The fort's sea wall from the water, as the boats arrive, June 2026.
Photograph: Alexey Komarov · CC BY 4.0
Pink granite, a sea cave and clear shallows beside the fort, August 2017.
Photograph: Silas Szwarcberg Cunha · CC BY-SA 4.0
A gull on the fort's lichen-covered parapet, September 2018.
Photograph: Iolanda Veiros · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Register before you sail, and keep the confirmation somewhere wet hands can reach it.
- Start the list while still on the quay. The crossing will shuffle it into an order nobody would pick.
- Walk only where the path is marked. Everywhere else is gull country, and the gulls say so loudly.
- The few houses by the landing are the fishermen’s. Look from the path, and let their nets be.
- Swim in the cove beneath the fort toward evening, once the day boats have left for the mainland.
The Fort of São João Baptista. A seventeenth-century fort on an islet off Berlenga Grande’s south-east coast, built from the stones of the Hieronymite monastery that stood on the island, planned in 1651 and completed in 1678, and reached by a causeway and an arched bridge, Wikipedia records. It is an irregular octagon of two-storey walls with cannon embrasures facing the sea. It is crossed to on foot, and seen inside in summer.
Tally, in the marginI had taken the bridge for the way in. Halfway over, with the sea thumping below, I saw it had been built as the one way in, and crossed the remainder with considerably more respect.
Getting there
How to get there. By boat from the marina at Peniche, on the coast north of Lisbon. Several companies run passenger boats in summer, roughly from the end of May to mid-September, travel guides report; crossings take 20 to 45 minutes depending on the boat and the sea, and the Atlantic here can make the trip rough. Register on BerlengasPass and pay the tax before you sail.
When to go. June to mid-September, when the boats run. Outside the season there is no regular service. Calm mornings give the easier crossing.
What to arrange ahead. Your BerlengasPass registration; a boat seat, booked ahead in July and August; and, for an overnight stay, a place at the island’s small campsite, which reopened with reduced capacity in 2024, Observador reported, or at the fort’s shelter. Bring water, food and sun protection; there is little shade.
Safety. The State Department has Portugal at Level 1, exercise normal precautions (advisory dated 3 March 2025 in its feed, read 5 October 2026). The hazards here are the place’s own: a rough crossing, steep paths and cliff edges, and the narrow bridge to the fort.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is Berlenga Grande?
Berlenga Grande is the largest island of the Berlengas archipelago, in the Atlantic Ocean off Peniche, on Portugal’s coast north of Lisbon. The archipelago lies 10 to 17 kilometres offshore; Berlenga Grande is 1.5 kilometres long and rises to 88 metres.
How do you get to Berlenga Grande?
By passenger boat from Peniche marina, in the summer season from about the end of May to mid-September. Crossings to Berlenga Grande take 20 to 45 minutes, depending on the boat and the sea, and visitors must register on the BerlengasPass platform and pay the tax first.
How many people can visit Berlenga Grande?
No more than 550 visitors may be on Berlenga Grande at the same time, a limit set by Portugal’s Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests (ICNF); seasonal residents, service providers and officials are not counted. Visitors register in advance on BerlengasPass and pay a tax of three euros, charged since 2022.
What is the fort on Berlenga Grande?
The Fort of São João Baptista stands on an islet off Berlenga Grande’s south-east coast, joined to it by an arched bridge. Built from the stone of a ruined monastery from 1651, it resisted a Spanish fleet in 1666 and was completed in 1678; it later became an inn and is open to visitors in summer.
Does anyone live on Berlenga Grande?
No one lives on Berlenga Grande all year. Its only dwellings are fishermen’s houses by the landing, and in summer it has seasonal residents, service providers, a campsite and the shelter in the fort.
Is Berlenga Grande a UNESCO site?
The Berlengas archipelago, including Berlenga Grande, joined UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves in 2011, announced at the Man and the Biosphere Programme’s council in Dresden. It is also a Portuguese nature reserve.
What is the Furado Grande?
The Furado Grande is a natural sea tunnel on Berlenga Grande that runs through the island and opens into a bay, one of the caves and arches that erosion has cut in its pink granite, according to Wikipedia. Travel writers describe boat trips into it from the landing.
When is the best time to visit Berlenga Grande?
June to mid-September, when passenger boats run to Berlenga Grande from Peniche; outside that season there is no regular service. The crossing can be rough, so calm days are best.