Upper Rock Nature Reserve

Top choice in Gibraltar


The Rock is one of the most dramatic landforms in southern Europe. Most of its upper sections fall within the Upper Rock Nature Reserve. Tickets include admission to O'Hara's Battery on the Rock's summit, St Michael’s Cave, full of stalagmites and stalactites, the Apes’ Den, the Great Siege Tunnels hewn out of the Rock during the siege of 1779–83, the 1333 Moorish Castle, the Military Heritage Centre, Nelson's Anchorage and the spine-tingling Windsor Suspension Bridge and glass-floor, 340m-high Skywalk.

The WWII tunnels, where the Allied invasion of North Africa was planned, can also be visited, but you'll need to book ahead; you must have a nature-reserve ticket to access the tunnels, but they aren't actually included in that ticket. Even combined, the Great Siege and WWII tunnels constitute only a tiny proportion of the Rock's more than 50km of tunnels, most of which remain off limits.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Gibraltar attractions

1. Windsor Suspension Bridge

0.12 MILES

The spine-tingling, 71m-long Windsor Suspension Bridge spans a 50m-tall gorge within the Upper Rock Nature Reserve.

2. St Michael’s Cave

0.18 MILES

About 25 minutes' walk south down St Michael's Rd from the top cable-car station (or up from the Apes' Den), this natural grotto is crammed with…

3. Skywalk

0.19 MILES

This glass-floor top-of-the-rock Skywalk sits within the Upper Rock Nature Reserve.

4. Alameda Botanic Gardens

0.34 MILES

Take a break from Gibraltar’s manic traffic amid these lush gardens of bougainvillea, drago trees and more, scene of Molly Bloom’s famous sexual exploits…

5. Apes' Den

0.36 MILES

The Rock's most famous inhabitants are its 160 tailless Barbary macaques. Many hang around the Apes' Den near the middle cable-car station, as well as at…

6. O’Hara’s Battery

0.42 MILES

About a 1km (15-minute) walk south down St Michael’s Rd from the top cable-car station, O’Hara’s Rd leads up to the left to O’Hara’s Battery, an…

7. Trafalgar Cemetery

0.53 MILES

Gibraltar’s cemetery gives a poignant history lesson, with its graves of British sailors who perished in the town after the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, and…

8. Nelson’s Anchorage

0.56 MILES

At the southwestern end of town, Nelson's Anchorage pinpoints the site where Nelson's body was brought ashore from the HMS Victory after the Battle of…