O Cebreiro

This truly ancient village high (1,330m) in the wild and windy Sierra Cantabrica on the Galician-Castilian border is one of the most interesting points on the main Camino Frances. 

As well as the one of the oldest building on the main Camino, its heavily restored but spacious C9 pre-Romanesque Church, O Cebreiro has five reconstructed pre-Roman Celtic dwellings, circular and square huts of surprisingly generous proportions for their antiquity. It is as a result a tourist trap.

Its village priest in the 1960s was one of the revivers of the Camino, and quite a lot of  walkers now start their Camino here: far enough away from Santiago to qualify as having done the pilgrimage, and with the chance to experience the ecologically rich and beautiful mountains (part of the Os Ancares reserve) on the regional border. 

The walking around here is excellent (ignoring of course the stream of walkers): high hillside tracks and quiet roads with wide views over the surrounding ridges and valleys, passing through fields and forests and sleepy hamlets.  You are away from the main roads which can so blight other stretches of the Camino. The hills are steep, and the 600m westward climb into Galicia to O Cebrero is one of the toughest on the Spanish Camino.

You can either walk​ the Camino to and beyond O Cebreiro, or make return walks along it from the village. Both are rich experiences.

See our Camino Frances page for general information.