The Spectacular Castro de Baroña in Galicia, Spain

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Welcome back to my continuing series of photographs from our summer trip to Galicia, Spain last August. If you’ve been following along, we arrived in Madrid on August 2nd (caught a smoldering flamenco show) and spent the night there before driving to the city of León to admire its lovely Cathedral. We then continued our drive to Santiago de Compostela, arriving August 4th, to spend a few days with family and re-visit Santiago de Compostela’s Zona Vella (Old Town), the first time for Serena (who, of course, loved it).

Town of Noia

After saying our goodbyes, we started our exploration of Galicia by driving to the lovely coastal town of Noia, some 20 miles west of Santiago de Compostela near the mouth of the Tambre river. Now, having planned this trip on somewhat short notice, there really weren’t a hell of a lot of hotels available in Galicia (Booking.com showed over 90% booked when I started planning!) but we did manage to find an adorable little hotel called Casa do Torno, some 20 miles west of Santiago de Compostela near the mouth of the Tambre river.

This former 19th-century school, now renovated for rural tourism, is surrounded by Galician “campo” and offers beautiful views of Mount San Lois. It was just the type of rural lodging we wanted this trip to be about. We loved it. Check out the gallery…

We drove down the coast for about 15 minutes to Porto do Son and had a delicious dinner seated outside O Asador do Hórreo, a popular dining spot known for its seafood and meat dishes. Then walked to the pier and watched the sunset over Ría de Muros e Noia…

Now. we only spent one day in Noia, the reason being we were there to visit one of Porto do Son’s most stunning attractions – Castro de Baroña.

Castro de Baroña

Castro de Baroña is the excavated site of an old Celtic fortress settlement and is situated on a highly exposed outcrop of land some twenty three thousand square meters in area. It is connected to the mainland by a pretty rugged stretch of land (over which you walk to reach it) and occupies a position about halfway down the Porto do Son coastline.

Located in the municipality of Porto do Son in the province of A Coruña, the settlement is surrounded by two walls and contains twenty roundhouses that still remain today (some of which are some of the best preserved of all Galician forts). It was built on a peninsula and inhabited from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD.

The Castro de Baroña was first excavated in 1933 by Sebastián González-García. The subsequent excavations were carried out by J. M. Luengo (1969-1970), Francisco Calo Lourido and Teresa Soeiro (1980 to 1984). Ánxel Concheiro (1984) and Francisco Calo (1985) reinforced the structural integrity of the fort, and a new round of excavations and renovations was started on May 21, 2012.

Now, with only one day dedicated to behold the castro, we arrived pretty early (sometime around 11am which is early for Spain during the summer). Parking is pretty easy to find if you just follow the signs. It’s a bit treacherous walking the rocky path down to the castro but it’s more than manageable for anyone wearing a good pair of shoes who doesn’t have really bad knees/ankles (just go easy and you’ll be fine!). And with the morning fog still covering the hills the castro was situated on, it was a quite a site to behold…

The Castro de Baroña is a must-see attraction in Galicia – I mean, it just took our breath away (and as you can see in the gallery below, it’s really pretty inconceivable that anyone could possible enjoy it more than Serena did!). Oh, and it’s free to visit – what more do you need?
Enjoy the gallery…