Las Ubiñas-La Mesa Nature Park comprises a mountain territory with marked contrasts in its relief, within which the Peña Ubiña massif rises up near the border with León to heights of over 2,400 metres, making it the second highest area in the region after the Picos de Europe.
Located in the southernmost part of Asturias, it is formed by the lands of Teverga and Quirós, which are included in the Somiedo Regional Hunting Reserve and in the Peña Ubiña Protected Landscape, in the southwest of the borough of Lena.
The environmental value of the park is afforded by the diversity it presents and its excellent state of preservation. Examples of over half the Asturian plant families are to be found here, with over a third of the area being occupied by old-growth forests in which beech predominates. Cantabrian wildlife is also very well represented here, with species such as the brown bear and the Cantabrian capercaillie, included in the Regional Catalogue of Threatened Species, as well as the otter and Pyrenean desman, two species associated with high environmental quality watercourses. Birds of prey, roe deer, deer, chamois, wolves and foxes also form part of the local wildlife. Noteworthy among the watercourses that flow through Peña Ubiña-La Mesa Nature Park is the gorge formed by the River Val de Sampedro, where Huerta Cave, a listed Natural Monument, can be found.
Numerous cultural values also come together in this rich environmental setting. It boasts one of the most significant rock art sites in the northwest of the peninsula (Fresnedo Caves), with pictorial representations from the Bronze to Iron Ages. It also conserves remains of the hill fort era. However, one of its most representative elements is undoubtedly the so-called Camino Real de la Mesa, a Roman road which linked the region with the plateau of León, as ancient as the first indigenous Astur people. Fine examples of traditional Asturian mountain architecture can still be seen in the villages in the area, which preserve stone houses with wooden running balconies. Alongside these villages coexisted the brañas, summer grazing areas where simple broom-thatched or tile-roofed stone huts known as teitoswere built, together with circular constructions with stone corbel domes called corros or cabanos.
