O Cebreiro → Triacastela

Your first full day in Galicia, and the mountains are not done with you yet. The stage begins with a climb from O Cebreiro along the ridgeline of the Sierra de Os Ancares, passing through Linares and up to the Alto de San Roque (1,270m), where a bronze statue of a pilgrim leaning into the wind captures exactly what this exposed ridge feels like on most days. The views, when the mist lifts, stretch across the Galician mountains in every direction: the Navia valley to the north, the Sierra de O Courel to the south. After Hospital da Condesa (named for a 9th-century pilgrim hospital founded by Countess Dona Egilo), a short, steep climb brings you to the Alto do Poio (1,337m), the highest point of the Camino Frances in Galicia.

From the Alto do Poio, everything descends. The route drops over 670 metres across the remaining 13 km, first gently through Fonfria (where locals sometimes welcome early-arriving pilgrims with towers of fried milk cakes), then more steeply through O Biduedo and Fillobal. The landscape is shifting around you: slate-roofed hamlets, chestnut forests, cattle being walked between pastures along ancient corredoiras (sunken farm lanes), and the soft green of inland Galicia replacing the harsher mountain terrain above. After As Pasantes, keep an eye out for a centuries-old chestnut tree beside the path near Ramil, one of the great quiet landmarks of this section.

Triacastela sits in a green valley at the bottom of the descent. The name refers to three castles that once stood here; none survive. In medieval times, pilgrims quarried limestone from the hills around the village and carried a stone across Galicia to the kilns at Castaneda, where it was burned into lime for the construction of Santiago Cathedral. It was pilgrim labour: a physical contribution to the building of the destination you are walking towards. From Triacastela, the route splits. The direct path to Sarria goes over the hills via San Xil (shorter, hillier, better views). The alternative detours south through the vast Benedictine Monastery of Samos (longer, flatter, and highly recommended if you have not yet visited a major Spanish monastery). Both rejoin before Sarria. Santiago is approximately 130 km away.