Information about El Fargue:

El Fargue is a village, about 4km to the north of Granada.
There are about 800 inhabitants.
Oficially El Fargue is not a village, it is a district of Granada.

El Fargue mainly exists because for many centuries there has been a gun powder factory in the village and the majority of the inhabitants were workers at the factory. The company was state owned until 2001. It was making a loss and was sold off to the American company General Dynamics. The factory will continue as long as the company gets new contracts. At the moment the factory is making anti tank-missiles.

They originaly decided to build a factory on this site not long after gun powder was invented. There is a water channel called the Aynadamar which took water from the spring at Fuente Granada above Alfacar to the Albayzín, a distance of 13km. This "acecia" used to supply most of the water for Granada and at one time supplied the water needs of 50 000 people. The flow of water was used in the mills to grind the ingredients of the gun powder.

El Fargue has 2 restaurants:

El Caldero.
There is a terraza with very good views of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Occasionally there is live music at the weekends. As well as the main menu there is a cheap "menú del día" available from Tuesaday to Friday for 7.50€ . It is closed on Mondays. 958 804 269 - 665 610 743

La Padilla.
There is a wood oven. The speciality is "carnes a la brasa" meat cooked in the wood oven. There is a cheap "menu del día" available at 7.50€ . The main bar is not very nice. It is best to be in the "comedor" dining room on the right or at the tables and chairs outside.

Excursions to El Fargue from Granada:
El Fargue in itself is not an amazing place to visit but it can be the focus of a very pleasant excursion from the centre of Granada. The main attractions being the view of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and on the journey, the Sacromonte Abbey, the views of the Alhambra etc. At the mid point you can eat at the Caldero restaurant outside.
1.
What would make a pleasant excursion from the centre of Granada would be to come up on the bus, eat in one of the restaurants and then go back to Granada walking downhill along the Sacromonte Abbey road. The view of the Alhambra gradually gets bigger as you walk down the hill. It's a walk of about 3km.
You can catch the F bus.
The route of the "autobus F" is:
Jardines de Triunfo - Facultad de medicina - Cervezas Alhambra, Carretera de Murcia, Haza Grande, El Fargue. The buses leave on the hour and on the half hour from below the Triunfo gardens.

2.
If you are a cyclist an interesting route would be to start in Plaza Nueva, go along the River Darro, go up the Cuesta Chapiz, go along the camino de Sacromonte, Sacromonte Abbey, then go up the road behind the Abbey until you get to the football pitch.
The increase in altitude is 233 metres
Plaza Nueva 696m
Peso de Harina 726m
Caldero Restaurant 929m

If you are fit you can continue on up the the cruz de Viznar (1523 metres) in the Sierra de Huetor which is the cross at the top of the mountain opposite El Fargue. There are amazing views from the top. By the way the Sierra de Huetor is a good place to go mountian biking.

3. If you want to walk the whole way there are lots of interesting tracks and paths going from behind the Sacromonte up to El Fargue. See this map of the Sacromonte (click here) for starting points.

Nature:
I don't know why but there are many azure winged magpies (Cyanopica cyana) in El Fargue.There are a bit smaller than a normal magie and they have a black capped head..

In the pine woods between the Sacromonte and El fargue there are a lot of red squirrels. (Sciurus vulgaris) They seem much more delicate than grey squirrels. Unfortunately they have terribe road sense and it is not uncommon to see dead red squirrels on the asphalt road which goes up for the Sacromonte Abbey. They rush out straight in front of cars as if they had a death wish.