Atalaya By Boutique

A Seafront Sanctuary in La Herradura

Atalaya, the Spanish home of Yann Le Coadic, co-founder of the Paris interior-architecture studio Le Coadic Scotto, was featured in Harper’s Bazaar Intérieurs in 2026. Its life began as a private watchtower, built in 1984 by a German engineer on an untouched stretch of the Andalusian coast, and it now serves as a study in Mediterranean minimalism that envelopes the wild landscape around it. The house sits in La Herradura, inside the protected Maro-Cerro Gordo natural park, sharing its cliffs with ibex and seabirds and keeping a private path down to Cantarriján beach. There are four bedrooms for up to seven guests.

The story goes that a German engineer raised the tower in 1984 to experiment with radio waves, testing signals from a studio set into the top cupola. You can still see that in the building's structure: workshops low in the stone, living spaces lifted into the volumes above.

Inside, the palette is deliberately minimal and raw, with white plaster, pale stone and wood, as well as curved thresholds that follow the tower’s geometry rather than fight it. Rooms are furnished with restraint and a collector’s eye, arranged so that the sea is always the first thing you notice. A telescope and a desk sit where the old signal room once was, a quiet nod to what the house was built to do.

The house is anchored by its terraces, which give front-row seats to the nature reserve. There is no pool. In its place is something rarer: a private path that winds down the cliff to Cantarriján beach. The gardens are wild and native, merging into the protected parkland. From the top of the tower you can watch the sun merge into the sea.

Layout

This vacation home for rent in La Herradura sleeps up to seven guests in four bedrooms, arranged across the tower’s white upper floors. Two have king-sized beds with their own bathrooms. The third holds a king bed, and the fourth a single. Across the house there are five WCs in total. The spaces flow upward toward the light, with the main living rooms and kitchen sharing the levels that gift the best of the views.

• Bedroom 1: King, en suite

• Bedroom 2: King, en suite

• Bedroom 3: King

• Bedroom 4: Single

3 guest WCs

Experiences

Electric bike hire can be arranged locally for the coast road and to get down to the beach. A boat chartered out of La Herradura or Marina del Este brings you around to see the watchtower from the water, standing alone on its cliff the way passing sailors once would have seen it, and allows you to reach secluded coves and beaches only accessed by boat. Scuba diving is very famous here because the seabed is also part of the nature reserve. Kayaks and padels can be rented easily.

Good to know

The house is pet-friendly, and dogs are welcome on the trails. It is not suited to children between two and 12. The minimum stay is five nights.

Amenities & services

Wifi, kitchen, coffee maker, washer, dryer, desk or workspace, private beach access, terrace, on-site parking, rain shower, bathrobes provided, toiletries provided, air conditioning, heating, garden, fire extinguisher, pet-friendly, hiking trails access, exterior security cameras

Around

La Herradura is one of the last authentic holdouts on the Andalusian coast, famous for its horseshoe bay and subtropical microclimate. It is a town of divers, hikers, and nature lovers. The beach is home to two excellent restaurants, La Barraca and Bola Marina, offering fresh seafood while your feet stay in the sand. A 15-minute drive brings you to local markets and cafes, while the historic allure of Granada and the UNESCO World Heritage Alhambra is just an hour away, and the Cordoba Mosque is two hours. While it is enticing to stay in the beauty of your private perch on the cliffs, the Nerja Caves are close by for a rewarding geological excursion. The beach below has a regular section (with two restaurants, including the excellent Bola Marina 2), as well as a naturist section, separated by a small hill.