Camino Inglés
Ferrol → Santiago de Compostela
The short one, and the one with a catch. 114 km from Ferrol qualifies you for a Compostela; the 79 km from A Coruña does not.
New information comes in every day — from pilgrims on the road and people I know along the way — and it goes out the moment it does. The app carries all of it offline, and it's still being built: new features arrive routinely.
Pilgrims on the road and friends along the way send me changes every day, and they go out the same day. The Camino Inglés from Ferrol app carries all of it offline, and it's still being built — new features arrive routinely.
Get the appFrom the listings on this site, recalculated as they change.
The Inglés is the route English and Irish pilgrims took when they came by sea, landing at Ferrol or A Coruña and walking the rest. It is for someone with a week off, for someone testing whether they like walking all day before committing five weeks to it, and for anyone who wants a Compostela without taking a month away from work. There is nothing wrong with any of those reasons.
Who it isn't for: anyone expecting the Francés's company or its infrastructure. The Inglés is quiet, the beds are fewer and further apart than the distance suggests, and you will meet a fraction of the people. That is its charm and its constraint.
There are two starts, and the difference between them matters. Ferrol to Santiago is 114 km, four or five days. A Coruña to Santiago is 79 km, three or four. The Compostela requires a hundred kilometres on foot, so Ferrol earns you one and A Coruña does not. People find this out too late every single year. If the certificate matters to you, start at Ferrol.
That aside, A Coruña is the nicer city and its shorter route is a fine three days. From Ferrol the first day along the ría, the sea inlet, is the good one: water on one side, then Pontedeume and its bridge. After that it is the Galician interior: eucalyptus, farm track, small towns, a couple of solid climbs in the middle around Hospital de Bruma, and the last day into Santiago from the north, arriving at the cathedral by a route that almost nobody else uses.
Gentler than most caminos on paper and not quite as gentle underfoot. The climbs are the surprise: the one out of Betanzos and the long pull up to Hospital de Bruma in particular start modestly and then never seem to end, and on a short route with fresh legs they catch people by surprise. Otherwise it is rolling country and quiet road. It rains, because it is Galicia, and the tracks get muddy. Four or five days is enough to get blisters and not enough to get fit, which is the honest difficulty of a short camino.
Fewer beds than on the Francés, but a hundred kilometres is not a long way to plan. Betanzos and Bruma are the usual stops from Ferrol and both have albergues that fill in summer; the Xunta network covers the rest. Every town on this page lists every bed, and the table on each town's page shows every place with beds within a day's walk.
The prices at the top of this page come from the listings on this site, recalculated as they change. A short camino in Galicia is a cheap holiday: Xunta albergues at the standard rate and seafood at coastal prices for the first two days.
Any month. Galicia is mild year round, wet from October to April, and rarely hot; a warm summer day is 27 °C (81 °F). The Inglés is one of the few caminos where a winter walk is entirely reasonable, and it is quieter still then.
A Coruña has an airport and a railway station; Ferrol has a station on the same line, an hour further on, and a bus from A Coruña. Anyone starting from Ferrol can fly to A Coruña or Santiago and take the train up. Santiago has an airport and fast trains to Madrid.
Finisterre and Muxía are three or four days beyond Santiago, and for someone with a week and a half they make the Inglés into a proper journey: sea to sea, across the top of Galicia.
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Ferrol is a proper city, not a quaint pilgrim town, and it makes for a fine starting point. The port has served the Spanish Navy since the 16th century, and the grid-pattern streets of the Barrio da Magdalena — laid out by military engineers in the 18th century — give it a surprisingly elegant feel for an industrial shipyard city. Modernist facades line the streets, designed by architect Rodolfo Ucha in the early 1900s.
Pick up your credencial at the Co-Cathedral of San Julián, a neoclassical church built in 1778 with a dome that dominates the skyline. It's open mornings (10:30-13:00) and evenings (17:30-19:00). The Camino starts at the port, next to Sarga restaurant on the waterfront — look for the route marker.
All services here: supermarkets, pharmacies, ATMs, outdoor shops. The public albergue has 60 beds and opened in 2023. Give yourself a night to explore the Magdalena district, the naval arsenal (visible from outside), and the waterfront. The Jofre Theatre and the old fish market are worth a wander if you've got time.
Ferrol's food is Galician through and through. Pulpo, empanada, and fresh seafood from the ría. You won't go hungry.
Ferrol's harbour has been a strategic military asset since the 16th century. Philip V, Ferdinand VI, and Charles III poured resources into building what became the largest naval arsenal in Europe. The city grew around the shipyards, and that industrial heritage still shapes it today. The 18th-century grid of the Magdalena quarter — six parallel streets crossed by nine perpendicular ones — was a military planning exercise that accidentally created one of Galicia's most attractive neighbourhoods.
The Camino leaves Ferrol through the city streets, heading east toward the Ría de Ferrol. The first few kilometres are urban, passing through the Polígono da Gándara industrial area before the landscape opens up along the estuary. The path follows the ría closely, and on a clear day the views across the water are a fine reward for the unremarkable start.
An industrial zone on the outskirts of Ferrol. There's nothing here for pilgrims beyond a few roadside bars, but you pass through it quickly. Press on toward the estuary.
Narón is the municipality next door to Ferrol, and Xubia is where the Camino passes through. The highlight here is the Monasterio de San Martiño de Xubia, a Romanesque monastery complex founded in the 10th century by the Counts of Traba. Documents from 977 already mention it. The monastery church is a fine example of Galician Romanesque — worth a pause.
The path runs along the ría here, past the old tide mill at As Aceas de Lembeie and over the bridge across the Xubia River into Neda. A few cafes along the way. Watch for traffic on some stretches close to the road.
The monastery of San Martiño de Xubia was one of the most important Cluniac houses in Galicia, established by the powerful Counts of Traba in the 10th century. A document from 977 records a noblewoman's donation to the monastery, confirming it was already well established by then.
What the ground between two towns is actually like: everything you pass through, the climbing, and where you could stop along the way. Not a plan — a description.
Route index
114 km from Ferrol to Santiago de Compostela. Most pilgrims walk it in 4 to 5 days. Every town below has its own page.
The English Way, is one of the shortest yet historically rich routes to Santiago de Compostela. Spanning a mere 119 kilometers or about 74 miles, this route starts from the port city of Ferrol and traverses the heart of Galicia. As the name suggests, it was historically the preferred route of English and Irish pilgrims who arrived by boat to the northern Spanish ports and is now a popular choice for those with limited time or those seeking a shorter pilgrimage.
The Camino Inglés takes you through the verdant landscapes of Galicia, abundant with eucalyptus and pine forests, rolling hills, and traditional hamlets. The cultural highlights include the medieval quarters of Pontedeume and Betanzos, both of which house architectural treasures such as gothic churches and historic palaces. The trail offers a moderate level of difficulty with several steep ascents and descents, but nothing that would make a determined pilgrim bat an eye.
When it comes to food, the Camino Inglés will make your taste buds dance the flamenco. Galician cuisine dominates the menu with a smorgasbord of seafood, empanada gallega (a local savory pie), pimientos de padrón (fried green peppers), and the comforting caldo gallego (Galician broth). Wash it all down with a glass (or two) of the region's famous Albariño wine, and you've got a gastronomic pilgrimage to remember. The Camino Inglés might be short, but it packs in a beautiful blend of history, culture, and cuisine, giving you a taste of the Camino experience in a condensed form.
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.
