We spotted them on the last day - a family of wild boar making their way purposefully, in single file, up the steep slope on the other side of the gorge. Mother was followed by two fully grown offspring from the previous year, with three small brown piglets trooping behind.

Salvador, one of our guides, had seen them first, announcing this with an excited cry of "Jabali!", and we watched entranced. Although just about every day walking in the Alicante mountains we had seen the telltale signs of wild boar - earth turned over where they had been digging for bulbs and roots - it's extremely rare to see them in the flesh, and even rarer for them not to vanish instantly. But it so happened that the noise of the water rushing through the Barranc de Infern gorge meant they hadn't heard anything else, and the wind was also blowing towards us. We were in luck.

Then, about a minute after the family vanished into the bushes, a laggard fourth brown piglet appeared, scurrying to catch up. I felt a bit worried about him in particular - but in fact there's a good chance that any one of the boar that we had just seen could end up in a Spanish cooking pot. Things were a lot safer during the centuries of Moorish rule, when the population of this beautiful mountain region was mostly Muslim. Even so, for much of the time, barring the occasional pair of golden eagles, the boars have the hills to themselves.

It's the case, too, that walkers in search of sunshine - the sun makes itself felt 300 days a year, though high summer is too hot for strenuous activity - can tramp the spectacular limestone scenery all day without encountering anyone else. This area of Valencia seems hardly to have been discovered by tourists at all, although it's just a few miles from the beaches of Benidorm. In fact that might be the reason: marketing the area as part of the Costa Blanca seems to have successfully deterred the sort of people interested in a bit of peace and quiet. It can't last, of course, but even if ten times as many walkers discover the region's abundant wildflowers and wildlife, there will still be room for them to vanish into the landscape.

It's even possible, as we did one day, to scramble up a pinnacle to the Moorish watchtower of Perputxent and eat your picnic in utter tranquillity within sight of Benidorm. It lay far away in a blue haze on the edge of the Mediterranean, looking pleasant enough. On every other side there were mountains as far as the eye could see: from this watchtower the Moors would have been on the lookout for Christian raiders like El Cid, who ended his days as ruler of nearby Valencia after a lifetime of fighting against his co-religionists as well as the infidel.

Berbers from north Africa invaded Spain in 711, and within four years had conquered virtually all of the country and a good chunk of southern France too. Yet although they have long gone - victims of 17th-century ethnic cleansing - the Moors have nevertheless left their mark on the landscape. Everywhere, even on steep and inaccessible-looking slopes, terraces of olive and fruit trees march up the hillsides, making productive use of every inch of space. Moorish wells still dot the landscape.

Even after the region was conquered by the Christian kingdom of Aragon, the Moorish farmers and artisans ("Moriscos", as they were known) continued their traditions for centuries, though they nominally converted to Christianity. Eventually they were kicked out by royal command - though their expulsion cost the economy of 17th-century Spain a great deal. A hint of the human cost can be imagined in the narrow Barranc de Malafì, "the gorge of bad faith", where Morisco families were brought before being marched off down to the coast and into African exile. Despite the rugged beauty of the scene, there is still a slightly sinister feeling to the place - a kind of sunlit Glencoe, perhaps.

We paused halfway down, beneath a spot where a pair of golden eagles nest, but waited in vain for them to appear. One advantage with flowers and plants, of course, is that they stay put - the gorse was beginning to appear and we got wafts of rosemary as we brushed past the bushes. Though we didn't quite make the season, it's easy to believe that the spring flowers, including many species of orchid, are amazing. At the end of the gorge there is evidence of much older history, notably neolithic rock paintings which, so enthusiastic archaeologists believe, show evidence of the very beginnings of agriculture The paintings are certainly striking, though what they meant to those ancient herdsmen seems open to interpretation - some of our party were sceptical. Did neolithic women really wear long skirts? And why was one figure's head missing?

One of the few hotels inland from the coastal strip catering for walkers is Els Frares in the village of Quatretondeta, run by a genial Geordie, Brian Fagg, and his wife Pat. Actually, it caters for greedy walkers - the food is excellent (just as well, given that hiking stimulates the appetite). The hotel is named after the striking rock formation near the village, whose white limestone pinnacles resemble hooded penitents - Els Frares in the local Valenciano language, a variant of Catalan. (Nearby is a formation more earthily christened "Bill and Monica" by American visitors.)

Since settling in the area 14 years ago, Brian has built up a repertoire of more than 100 walks, some of them involving ridges and peaks over 1300 metres - not for fainthearted us. We settled for what the holiday company Waymark conservatively classify as grade 2, about five hours walking a day, mostly on paths, with an ascent less than 500 metres.

Getting a group of walkers who are all at the same standard is difficult, though Waymark try to warn people to be realistic about their fitness and stamina. But many of us tend to be unrealistic, so it's down to the skill of the leader to match the walks to the people doing them, perhaps splitting up the party for a day to give the more energetic members room for manoeuvre. On our holiday, most of us were kept happy most of the time, and veterans of other walking holidays seemed delighted with hotel and trails alike.

And there's another reason for heading for the Alicante mountains before too many tourists discover them. The regional government is planning scores of huge wind turbines in the area - unless local opposition, evident in numerous anti-turbine slogans painted on the roads, is successful. For the sake of those golden eagles and their miles of unspoilt crags and gorges, we'll have to hope Brian and his fellow campaigners do better than Don Quixote when it comes to tilting at windmills.

Way to go

Donald MacLeod went on a week's walking with Waymark Holidays, priced at £595 per person including flights from London Heathrow to Valencia, breakfast and dinner. Packed lunches extra. Waymark Holidays, 44 Windsor Road, Slough, SL1 2EJ. 01753 516477.

For more information on Els Frares, see Mountain Walks.