Chemin de l’Intérieur and Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Chemin de l’Intérieur

   Pilgrims have been crossing this green upland of Galicia on their way to Santiago de Compostela for more than a thousand years, and the scallop-shell waymarkers still guide them through the villages around Vilalba and Guitiriz. This is the Terra Chá, the flat land, a high plateau in the north of the province of Lugo where the northern pilgrim routes come down from the Cantabrian coast toward the interior. The Ways of Saint James in northern Spain are part of a UNESCO listing that recognises not only the famous French Way but also the coastal and inland routes that run through this region.

   Read the complete Chemin de l’Intérieur write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Chemin de l’Intérieur is where the day begins. Next is Tower of Hercules.

2. 2. Tower of Hercules

   On a rocky headland at the edge of A Coruña, a city of about two hundred and fifty thousand people on the north-west corner of Spain, stands a grey stone tower nearly fifty-five metres tall. It is the Tower of Hercules, and it is the oldest Roman lighthouse in the world still in use, which makes it a good deal older than almost anything else that works in Europe. UNESCO inscribed it in 2009.

   Read the complete Tower of Hercules write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Tower of Hercules comes up about 71 km into the recorded legs. Next is Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes.

3. 3. Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes

   Pilgrims walking the Camino del Norte toward Santiago reach Sobrado dos Monxes tired and footsore, and the sight of the huge granite Baroque façade of the monastery, rising out of a quiet Galician village, must feel like a miracle. Sobrado was founded as a monastery in the tenth century, became Cistercian in the twelfth, and grew into one of the most powerful abbeys in Galicia. After the dissolution of the monasteries in the nineteenth century, it fell into ruin, until Cistercian monks returned in the 1950s and began restoring it. Today they run a pilgrim hostel in part of the buildings.

   Read the complete Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 140 km into the recorded legs you reach Monaster de Sobrado Dos Monxes. Next is back through Tower of Hercules.

4. 4. back through Tower of Hercules

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Tower of Hercules write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Tower of Hercules, late in the day. Next is Chemin de l’Intérieur.

5. 5. Chemin de l’Intérieur

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Chemin de l’Intérieur write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Chemin de l’Intérieur. That is the ride.