The road to Santiago passes here

Every year, tens of thousands of people walk the Northern Way to Santiago de Compostela. They follow the Cantabrian coast from the Basque Country through Cantabria and Asturias, then turn inland at some point along the Galician border. One of those turning points is near Trabada.

The Camino Norte is not the most walked of the Jacobean routes — that distinction belongs to the French Way, which carries the majority of pilgrims. But it is among the oldest, and it is the one that passes through this territory.

A route older than its name

The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela developed across the ninth and tenth centuries, following the claimed discovery of the tomb of Saint James at Compostela. The coastal route along the north of the peninsula was one of the earliest paths to be used — it was the natural route for pilgrims arriving by sea from northern Europe, and for those travelling west through Asturias and along the coast.

The route's importance fluctuated with history. During periods of conflict with Al-Andalus, the northern coastal path was safer than the interior routes. During periods of political stability, the French Way through Burgos and León drew more traffic. But the northern route never stopped being used, and its infrastructure — bridges, hospitals, chapels, and hostels — accumulated across the medieval period.

Through Trabada

The Camino Norte enters Trabada from the east, crossing from Asturias, and follows a path through the municipality that connects several of its parishes before continuing west toward Ribadeo and then inland toward Lugo and eventually Compostela.

The passage through Trabada is not dramatically marked. There are waymarkers, and the yellow arrows that guide walkers on all the Jacobean routes, but the landscape here is quiet rural Galicia — fields, hamlets, stone walls, the occasional church — rather than the dramatic mountain scenery of other stretches.

That quietness is, for many walkers, precisely the point. The Northern Way has a reputation for being less crowded and more intimate than the French Way. In Trabada, the path passes through a landscape that has been settled and worked for millennia, where the marks of human presence are layered and subtle rather than monumental.

The medieval infrastructure

The physical evidence of medieval pilgrimage is present across the territory. The menhir of Marco da Pena Verde — which appears in the Diploma of King Silo from 775 AD as a boundary marker — stands near one of the historic paths. The churches and chapels of Trabada's parishes served pilgrims as rest points and spiritual markers along the route.

The name Trabada itself may carry a trace of this transit history. One interpretation of the medieval form Triavada suggests a reference to three fords or crossings over the Eo — infrastructure that would have been essential to anyone travelling through the territory on foot.

Walking it today

The Camino Norte is an active, maintained route. Pilgrims walk it year-round, with peak season between April and October. The infrastructure for walkers — waymarkers, albergues, and services — is well established along the full length of the route.

For guests at O Roxo Seco, the proximity of the Camino Norte offers an option that few rural stays can provide: the possibility of joining one of the world's great walking routes directly from the doorstep, for a day, a section, or the full distance to Compostela.

The route has been walked for a thousand years. The path through Trabada is the same path.