Camino del Norte
28.4 km, 678 m up and 489 m down, through 18 places, 6 of which have somewhere to sleep. Where you stop is up to you.
Every place on the path in order, with the distance from Paládin. 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.
Between Paladin and Peñaflor you will be walking with the río Nalón and the train tracks on your left-hand side. You will pass through the roadside villages of Puerma and Laracha. Peñaflor is on the opposite side of the river when you get to the first bridge. Once you have passed the church on the opposite side of the river, the camino immediately leaves the road to the right to follow signs in the direction of the FEVE railway station.
The camino leaves the main roads and crosses underneath the railway in Peñaflor, and will cross back over them at the outskirts of Grado.
Leave Grado along the main road (N-634). You will pass the 18th century Fuente de Arriba, from which the people of Grado drew their water before the installation of running water, on your right. Shortly beyond a cruceiro (stone cross) on your left the camino turns left and begins climbing, first on a concrete road and then on a gravel path.
The camino emerges onto the road, turns right, and passes over a newly constructed roadway. It then passes through the hamlets of Cascayal and El Valle (a place with no buildings whatsoever, but which does have a dumpster). At the next road junction is the turn to San Juan de Villapañada.
Beware guidebooks which erroneously place the Villapañada albergue in Grado, when it is in fact 3.5 km outside of town.
San Juan de Villapañada and the albergue are about 700m up the road and off the camino. If you spend the night there, retrace your steps to rejoin the camino.
On the way up to El Friesnu you will pass through La Pelona.
Retrace your steps to get back to the camino as it ascends to El Friesnu.
Note: several yellow arrows still direct you uphill from the church in El Friesnu. These are leftover from a detour during construction of the nearby A63 highway. The camino has returned to its original route, which goes…
At the far end of Samarciellu, where the road meets a roundabout, the camino turns left onto a trail to Reaz, and beyond it Doriga.
Shortly beyond Doriga, the camino passes under the highway and on the other side it meets up with the alternate route that went through Cabruñana. Be mindful not to walk the wrong way back up to Cabruñana. The camino turns left sharply onto a narrow trail and descends to the quarry/village of Las Casas del Puente.
There is a large traffic interchange at the end of Las Casas, in the hamlet of La Rodriga. The camino keeps to the left and towards the river. In the summer months there may be a bar open in the park alongside the river.
After crossing the bridge into Cornellana there is a sign indicating a trail to your left. This option takes you directly to the albergue without first passing through town. It is the same distance.
La Rodriga is the small cluster of buildings at the roundabout before Cornellana. In summer months there may be a bar open in the park alongside the river.
The camino leaves town from the road behind the monastery. Arrows are weakly painted here. Simply follow the road to the left of the monastery, and turn right at the first junction to follow the property line behind the monastery and uphill.
600m after Sobrerriba, at a point where the houses crowd the road, the camino turns right onto a mountain track. The track uphill curves to the left and around the mount before descending near a sand pit and the town of Llamas.
Beyond the town you will pass under a roadway. Shortly beyond that you will leave the road and continue by trail, passing over the Puente de Casazorrina.
Just past the fuente the camino leaves the road for a riverside trail on your left.
Between Casazorrina and Mallecín the camino follows a trail, which crosses under the autopista (highway).
To exit town, carry on under the archway and up the road. There is a fair amount of climbing ahead of you. The climb meets the road at El Llanón, which is easy to miss as its infrastructure counts for little more than an abandoned factory along the road.
The path splits here and rejoins before Salas. Both ways are below, because the question is which to take, and that is not a question two separate pages can answer.
At the far end of Samarciellu, where the road meets a roundabout, the camino turns left onto a trail to Reaz, and beyond it Doriga.
Shortly beyond Doriga, the camino passes under the highway and on the other side it meets up with the alternate route that went through Cabruñana. Be mindful not to walk the wrong way back up to Cabruñana. The camino turns left sharply onto a narrow trail and descends to the quarry/village of Las Casas del Puente.
Distance, climb and descent are measured along the GPS track for this camino — 771 recorded points across this span, the same track the app carries. The town-to-town figures in my data put it at 27.8 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.