The Beach
Isolated and accessible only by secondary dirt tracks, the Atlantic beach of Ponta Ruiva is of rare beauty and has a sandy bay of about 500m. The origin of its name is due to the iconic reddish tip that marks the western side of the cove, a large rock made of red sandstone, also known regionally as "sandstone of Silves" and locally as "pedra farinheira". This rock is a rare geomonument because it is the end of a geological formation that develops throughout the Algarve region and continues on the other side of the Atlantic, in Canada, on the American Continent. This is physical evidence of continental drift and the ancient supercontinent Pangeia, existing in the Paleozoic Era. The beach is part of the Natural Park of Southwest Alentejo and Costa Vicentina. - Câmara Municipal de Vila do Bispo