Taxonomically, the species is close to the Corsican hare; the two are thought to have had a common ancestor in the Late Pleistocene.

The fur of the broom hare is a mixture of brown and black, with very little white on the upper part of the body.

[3] It is restricted to the Cantabrian Mountains in northern Spain between the Serra dos Ancares and the Sierra de Peña Labra [ceb].

It lives in mountains at elevations up to 2,000 m (6,600 ft), though it descends during the winter to avoid the colder temperatures and snow.

Its preferred habitat is heathland, containing mainly Erica, Calluna, and Vaccinium, with much shrub cover of Cytisus, Genista, and Juniperus.

It also inhabits clearings in mixed deciduous forests of oak and beech.