Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 261 km round trip from Tineo - roughly 4 h 15 in the saddle. On the way it passes Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador, Eglise Santa Maria de Soto de Luiña, La Peña de Candamo and San Miguel de Lillo. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Chemin Primitif
Tineo stands on a hillside above the green valleys of western Asturias, and it is one of the main stops on the Camino Primitivo, the original Way of St James. According to tradition, it was King Alfonso II of Asturias who first walked from Oviedo to Santiago in the ninth century to see the tomb, newly found, of the apostle, and the route he took became the Primitivo. It is the hardest of the Caminos, crossing mountain after mountain, and the pilgrims you meet here, wet, muddy and cheerful, are a special breed.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Chemin Primitif is where the day begins. Next is Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador.
2. Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador
Pilgrims have been trudging past these walls for about a thousand years, which makes a motorcycle look like a rather recent idea. The monastery of San Salvador de Cornellana stands beside the Narcea river in central Asturias, on the old inland route to Santiago that runs west from Oviedo through Grado and Salas. It was founded in the eleventh century, passed to the Benedictines of Cluny, and the church that survives keeps Romanesque bones under later remodelling. The bulk of the cloister and the old monastic buildings give the little village a weight that seems out of proportion to its size.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador comes up about 28 km into the recorded legs. Next is Eglise Santa Maria de Soto de Luiña.
3. Eglise Santa Maria de Soto de Luiña
Soto de Luiña is a quiet parish in western Asturias, a short way inland from one of the wildest stretches of the Cantabrian coast, and its church of Santa María is the reason the village has a name beyond the region. The building is baroque, rebuilt in the eighteenth century around older foundations, and alongside it stands the former pilgrims' hospital that once took in walkers on the coastal Way of Saint James. The church's interior, with its gilded altarpieces, comes as a surprise in such a small place, and the whole ensemble gives a sense of how the Camino shaped even modest villages along the route.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 64 km into the recorded legs you reach Eglise Santa Maria de Soto de Luiña. Next is La Peña de Candamo.
4. La Peña de Candamo
In the hills above the Nalón valley in Asturias, a cave hides one of the great collections of Paleolithic art in Spain. The Cueva de la Peña de Candamo, near San Román de Candamo, was discovered in 1914 and contains paintings and engravings of horses, bison, deer, goats and other animals, made during the Upper Paleolithic, and a remarkable wall of engraved figures. It is part of the UNESCO listing of cave art in northern Spain, and unlike some other caves, it can be visited, though only in limited numbers and for part of the year, so book ahead.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
La Peña de Candamo, about halfway. Next is San Miguel de Lillo.
5. San Miguel de Lillo
The hill of Naranco rises just north of Oviedo, the capital of Asturias, and on its slope, among oaks and chestnuts, stand two small stone buildings that are among the oldest and strangest churches in Europe. San Miguel de Lillo is the smaller and the more battered, and it lies a few minutes above Santa María del Naranco, three kilometres from the middle of the city, in a green landscape of meadows and apple orchards.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 196 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Eglise Santa Maria de Soto de Luiña. Next is back through Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador.
8. back through Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 261 km.
Leg by leg
Chemin Primitif to Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador
Chemin Primitif → Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador to Eglise Santa Maria de Soto de Luiña
Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador → Eglise Santa Maria de Soto de Luiña is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Eglise Santa Maria de Soto de Luiña to La Peña de Candamo
Eglise Santa Maria de Soto de Luiña → La Peña de Candamo is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
La Peña de Candamo to San Miguel de Lillo
La Peña de Candamo → San Miguel de Lillo is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
San Miguel de Lillo to back through La Peña de Candamo
San Miguel de Lillo → back through La Peña de Candamo is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through La Peña de Candamo to back through Eglise Santa Maria de Soto de Luiña
back through La Peña de Candamo → back through Eglise Santa Maria de Soto de Luiña is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Eglise Santa Maria de Soto de Luiña to back through Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador
back through Eglise Santa Maria de Soto de Luiña → back through Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador to Chemin Primitif
back through Eglise et Monastère de San Salvador → Chemin Primitif is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.