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The village of Relva do Mó sits surrounded on three sides by the Ribeira do Sinhel as it snakes its way down the valley. Relva da Mó takes its name from the little corn mill at the head of the river meadows, the literal translation being “grass of the millstone”. A handful of houses make up the village.
A large oak tree shades a small xisto building, used to distil aguardente. High terraced walls provide agricultural land around the village. The villagers used to tend sheep and goats – the little xisto buildings to house them are still visible on the far side of the river. The wool production of the region declined in the first half of the 20th Century, as the Portuguese government took common land for the forestry project, to plant with pine trees. On the hills around the village there are a number of mineshafts, said to date from the 8th Century, and worked by the Moors. Today there are a few sheep and goats, newly-planted vines, and long rows of beehives on the terraces.
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