Camino del Norte
24.2 km, 616 m up and 842 m down, through 9 places, 2 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from A Fonsagrada. Most are too small to sleep in — a fountain, a chapel, a bar that may or may not be open — but they are what the day is actually made of.
The camino exits Fonsagrada along the main road, and shortly after follows a secondary road parallel to it, into Padrón. Beyond Padrón it follows through forested paths off of the road.
The camino between Padrón and O Cádavo is arguably the most difficult of the route, and possibly the reason for the nickname the leg wrecker. Allow for extra time, especially after a rain since many of the sections become thick with mud.
Not to be confused with the much more famous Padron near Santiago. This is a small village just beyond Fonsagrada, and the former albergue here has closed. The camino between Padron and O Cadavo earns its reputation as t…
From this alto it is a 300m descent to Paradavella in less than 4km. The path is entirely off of the road along a forest track.
From Paradavella the camino follows a trail to the right of the road and crosses it to descend into the village of Calzada (meaning road). The next village, also without services, is Degolada. The camino keeps to the south of the road along the path and eventually climbs up to rejoin it as it enters A Lastra.
At the far end of A Lastra keep to the left, along the oncoming exit road, and just before it returns to the main road turn left uphill towards the houses. The climb continues steeply uphill for a gain of about 150m and the last part rejoins the road as it enters Fontaneira.
At the far end of Fontaneira leave the LU-530 for a small road uphill (direction Pandelo). You will pass the cemetery and then return to the main road to follow it for close to 1km. The camino then leaves the road in favor of a path on the right. As you descend to O Cádavo you will cross the Campo da Matanza.
The camino between here and Castroverde manages to avoid the steep LU-530 entirely. From O Cádavo it continues uphill along a farm lane to the town of Pradeda where you can look back for a nice view of O Cádavo. Beyond Pradeda the climb continues up to the Alto de Vacariza.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 666 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 24.2 km.
Esta entidad ha sido beneficiaria de una ayuda del Programa de incentivos a la movilidad eficiente y sostenible (MOVES III), gestionado por la Xunta de Galicia a través del Instituto Enerxético de Galicia (INEGA) en el marco del Real Decreto 266/2021, y cofinanciada por la Unión Europea — NextGenerationEU, dentro del Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia.