Vestige Binidufà gives Menorca’s bucolic side its moment

Last year, the Madera Fernandez family unveiled their latest countryside coup: twin refuges nestled within an 800-hectare Menorcan playground. Vestige Son Ermità and Vestige Binidufà – 11 rooms each – occupy restored two 18th-century fincas connected by a discreet country lane, offering guests the best of both worlds. Son Ermità opened last summer, crowning a low hilltop with pale sandstone grandeur; Binidufà now completes the picture from the valley below, rooted in red stone, agricultural memory and a slower, earthier register. City dwellers may need a moment to adjust to the silence here – it sits around you, deep and unfamiliar at first, until the estate begins to work its spell.

Wallpaper* checks in at Vestige Binidufà, Menorca

What’s on your doorstep?

At Binidufà, the doorstep is the estate itself: 800 hectares of Menorcan countryside, with dry-stone walls, native woodland, red earth, orchards, Vermell cattle, walking routes, cycling trails and land running down towards wild calas. Guests can move freely between Binidufà and Son Ermità, with the team using electric buggies to shuttle them between valley and hilltop. Beyond the estate, Vestige can arrange encounters with local artisans, farmers and producers, as well as mountain-bike tours, bee and honey experiences, jeep safaris, horse riding and art tours (such as at Hauser & Wirth Menorca).

Who is behind the design?

Binidufà was restored and designed by Vestige Estudio, the in-house studio behind Vestige Collection. Architecture, interiors, landscape and technical development were handled together, overseen by Maria Obdulia Fernández of the owning family. Enrique Motilla led the architectural restoration, Marta Delgado and her team developed the interiors, while Inés Martínez led the landscape design. The studio noted the project drew on an agricultural heritage shaped by ‘a pragmatic relationship with land and water’, which gives the design its backbone.

The gardens, rooms, restaurant and old farm buildings share the same material vocabulary: local limestone, reclaimed wood, limewashed walls, raw plaster, linen, cotton, shaded terraces and thick masonry. The guiding idea was to ‘reinterpret the intelligence of a traditional Menorcan farm rather than recreate it’. Thus, the restoration prioritised what was already there: historic rainwater channels, cisterns and drainage systems were restored and brought back into use; original wellheads, thresholds and doors were repaired and reintroduced.

Much of the craft is local. Menorcan carpenters made wardrobes, doors and built-in seating, while local stonemasons produced bathroom basins and exterior benches from the same limestone found in the estate’s dry-stone walls. Lighting was developed with MC Lighting, while the art and objects mix contemporary works, ceramics and antiques from the owners’ collection.

The room to book

The 11 rooms and suites are spread between the farmhouse and restored agricultural buildings, so each one has its own shape, outlook and relationship to the estate. Some open onto private gardens, others onto terraces or valley views; those in the farmhouse retain a stronger sense of the original building. ‘Rather than creating a hierarchy of rooms,’ says Vestige Estudio, ‘the design celebrates the individuality of the estate.’

Bespoke timber furniture, handcrafted joinery, limestone details, linen and cotton textiles keep the mood rooted in the landscape. The north-west of Menorca has a tougher, moodier beauty, and Binidufà reflects that. Rowse amenities add a crisp botanical note in the bathrooms. Book the Terrace Suite, set in the main building close to the restaurant – useful for breakfast, nightcaps and the short, happy journey back after dinner. At 70 sq m, it has a master bedroom opening onto a terrace, a generous living area with a sofa bed for a third guest, and a large bathroom made for long soaks beneath a skylight.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Mesura is Binidufà’s plant-led restaurant, shaded by trees and looking across the gardens and pool towards the valley. The menu uses vegetables, herbs, grains, dairy and eggs from local farmers and the estate’s own orchard, with Middle Eastern herbs and spices nodding to the property’s Arabic origins. Some dishes can be adapted with fish or meat on request. Vestige Estudio frames Mesura as ‘a natural continuation of Binidufà’s history as a working estate’, which feels right.

Raynaud Limoges nesting bowls arrive with olive oil from Son Felip, butter and salt, which is exceptionally followed by the tomato and cucumber starter, finely chopped, bright and lightly pickled. The signature dish is a vegetable tagine with fennel, pumpkin, green olives, and dried fruit. At the pool, the offering relaxes into salads, sandwiches and ice cream, with fresh lemonade brought on arrival. Executive chef Joan Bagur also oversees Brisa at Son Ermità, where French-inflected Menorcan cooking leans into crudos, seafood and seasonal vegetables.

Where to switch off

The pool is one of Binidufà’s best assets: simple, open to the valley. There is also a yoga deck set in woodland shade, massages using locally infused oils, and access to Son Ermità’s wellness facilities, including a gym built into the hillside with a full-height window looking across fields, coastline and rocky islets. Guests can also walk, hike, e-bike, picnic under trees or make for the calas (worth the trek). Vestige Estudio describes Binidufà and Son Ermità as ‘two very different ways to experience the same remarkable landscape’: one rural and intimate, the other elevated and expansive. The best stay makes use of both.

The verdict

The buzz of Ibiza has, thankfully, not reached this corner of Menorca. Set within a vast private estate on the island’s northern coast, where Menorquina (also known as ‘Vermella’) cattle graze and the countryside still has room to breathe, Vestige Binidufà preserves the bucolic side of the Balearics. What else can a guest ask for?

Vestige Binidufà is located at Diseminado Binideufa, 18, 07750, Illes Balears, Spain. Rates: from €650 per night for two, including breakfast.