Plan your visit
Forêt d'Iraty is one of France’s great natural sites — bring good shoes and a camera. Locate it on the map, book a room nearby in a click, or add it to your travel list to build your itinerary.
About Forêt d'Iraty
Straddling the crest of the Basque Pyrenees on the border with Spain, the Forêt d'Iraty is the largest beech forest in Europe, some 17,000 hectares of ancient trees rolling over green mountain ridges. In autumn its canopy blazes copper and gold, and the skies fill with the great migration of wood pigeons that has drawn hunters and watchers for centuries; sturdy little pottok ponies and manech sheep graze the high pastures. In summer walkers follow trails to prehistoric standing stones and panoramic peaks, while winter brings cross-country skiing and snowshoeing across the plateau. Wild, high and steeped in Basque tradition, Iraty is a magnificent expanse of forest and mountain, and one of the last strongholds of true wilderness in the western Pyrenees.