Accursed Mountains / About

The Accursed Mountains straddle the borders of Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo. There is a 10 day trek which weaves a path through the the vallery and over the massifs called “The Peaks of the Balkans”

Map of the Accursed Mountains and the 10 day “Peaks of the Balkans” Trek

The mountains are part of the Dinaric Alps which separate the Balkan Peninsula from the Adriatic. Indeed the Accursed Mountains are the highest mountains in the 650km chain of the Dinaric Alps. The mountains are largely comprised of limestone karst, forced up by geological collisions. Due to recent glaciation and their limestone nature they are steep.

The Accursed Mountains are largely composed of Limestone karst and are steep

The accursed mountains are composed of a number of massifs with many summits around the 2500m mark. Many of the massifs are connected to each other. They are also riven by deep gorges and canyons which lead down into lush fertile valleys. The main source of income in these sparsely populated valleys is traditional agriculture and pastoralism. The mountains have good pastures in the summer and people take their herds of sheep up here for the grazing. However in the last century there has been immigration away from the mountains.

The valleys of the Accursed Mountains are still very traditional with a lot of Transhumance in the summer months to take advantage of the lush pastures

Tourism is still in its infant stages and much of the accommodation on the trek is in shepherds lodges and simple guest houses. However the trip starts and finishes at Theth in Albania which is a larger village. It also passes through Plav in Montenegro which is a small town.