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Walking from the Faro de Fisterra to Fisterra at night

MarcoPolo616

Member
Time of past OR future Camino
2018 Camino Portugues (Valença to Santiago)
2019 (planned) Santiago- Finisterre-Muxia
Greetings Peregrinos,

Does anyone know if the walk from the Faro de Fisterra to the town of Fisterra at night is advisable? Is the path well lighted or is a headlamp required? My wife and I were planning to watch the sunset from the Faro and then walk back to the apartment after dark. Any suggestions? We will be in Fisterra for two nights before heading to Muxia and plan to walk to the Mar de Fora beach see the sunset on the second night Any thought? suggestions?

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
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Thank for your prompt reply Davey. That will eliminate the need to take my headlamp.

Marco
 
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Marco, my wife and I walked back after watching the sunset at the end of April last year. It was a great experience to watch the sun go down whilst sipping a glass of wine. It just seem a fitting end to our Camino. The walk back into town was fine, there were not many cars on the road and their were a few other walkers making their was back into town.
 
Even after the sun officially sets you'll still have some ambient light, and the walk takes about 40 minutes (and it will be mostly downhill from the Cabo) so you should be fine. If you're coming in the summer, you may already know that the sun doesn't set here until something like 11pm - so you may feel like going to sleep before the sun does! Enjoy and Buen Camino :)
 
Marco, my wife and I walked back after watching the sunset at the end of April last year. It was a great experience to watch the sun go down whilst sipping a glass of wine. It just seem a fitting end to our Camino. The walk back into town was fine, there were not many cars on the road and their were a few other walkers making their was back into town.
Thank you for your reply. The wine sounds like a great idea. We will be sure to take a bottle up to the Faro.
 
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Even after the sun officially sets you'll still have some ambient light, and the walk takes about 40 minutes (and it will be mostly downhill from the Cabo) so you should be fine. If you're coming in the summer, you may already know that the sun doesn't set here until something like 11pm - so you may feel like going to sleep before the sun does! Enjoy and Buen Camino :)
Thank you for your response. Yes, I remember only too well on last year’s Camino falling asleep every night before the sun went down. Staying up late was primarily the reason to stay two nights in Fisterra before heading on toward Muxia.
 
Excellent suggestion!!! Thanks!!!
 
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I walked down the road in the dark about 3 nights ago with no moon ( due to clouds) was easy to do.
Megg
 
PS: suggest going TO the lighthouse over the top rather than via the road - in the light. It is an easy walk with a bit if uphill but not hard. Several reasons to do it. Coming towards Faro you get an amazing view over the point not possible from the road. You can visit the Pedras Santa's at the top...amazing Holy Stones that gently ' rock' but won't be moved by force.
And I also visited the Hermitage San William - was a diversion off to the side. Ancient sacred site.
Worth the slightly longer walk.
Megg
 
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Just using Windy Maps (which is a super brilliant map app - so helpful on my walk from Seville) there are a few little walking tracks over the top. Google maps doesnt show the walking routes as Windy Maps does - it is SO good!
Head up a street called 'Camino Insua' and you will find a walking route, just follow that. Would be hard to get lost as the sea is on either side and only one way to get to the point. It definitely worth it.
Megg
 
Just using Windy Maps (which is a super brilliant map app - so helpful on my walk from Seville) there are a few little walking tracks over the top. Google maps doesnt show the walking routes as Windy Maps does - it is SO good!
Head up a street called 'Camino Insua' and you will find a walking route, just follow that. Would be hard to get lost as the sea is on either side and only one way to get to the point. It definitely worth it.
Megg
Thank you!
 
PS: suggest going TO the lighthouse over the top rather than via the road - in the light. It is an easy walk with a bit if uphill but not hard. Several reasons to do it. Coming towards Faro you get an amazing view over the point not possible from the road. You can visit the Pedras Santa's at the top...amazing Holy Stones that gently ' rock' but won't be moved by force.
And I also visited the Hermitage San William - was a diversion off to the side. Ancient sacred site.
Worth the slightly longer walk.
Megg
Thank you for you comments and suggestions Megg. I will definely plan to walk over the top to the lighthouse and take the road back. Did you ever make it to the Mar de
Fora beach on the other side of the Peninsula?
 
The one from Galicia (the round) and the one from Castilla & Leon. Individually numbered and made by the same people that make the ones you see on your walk.
Thank you for you comments and suggestions Megg. I will definely plan to walk over the top to the lighthouse and take the road back. Did you ever make it to the Mar de
Fora beach on the other side of the Peninsula?
Yes I did! Twice in fact. I went via that beach on the way over the top to Faro but I had the pleasure of being taken there the evening before by the 2 Hospitelieros at Albergue San Roque. I was the only pilgrim in the Albergue that evening and as we were doing the dishes they suddenly said let's go and see the sunset. So we got in the car and he drove us to that beach.
I had a bit of a funny feeling about driving to the place a would be walking the next day - but actually it was fine and the sunset was lovely. In the end I was glad to have gone as the next night when I was there it was cloudy.
Megg
 
Just using Windy Maps (which is a super brilliant map app - so helpful on my walk from Seville) there are a few little walking tracks over the top. Google maps doesnt show the walking routes as Windy Maps does - it is SO good!
Head up a street called 'Camino Insua' and you will find a walking route, just follow that. Would be hard to get lost as the sea is on either side and only one way to get to the point. It definitely worth it.
Megg
I was just going through some of my pictures from last year's Camino and I thought that I'd show what it looks like approaching the lighthouse by walking over the top.

Fisterra resize.jpg
 
I was just going through some of my pictures from last year's Camino and I thought that I'd show what it looks like approaching the lighthouse by walking over the top.

View attachment 85347
That looks fantastic @trecile
Great view of the lighthouse from there. (In the daylight !!!). I wouldn’t try without light myself.
 
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Looks great, I will try it the next time I’m in Finisterre, whenever that is. I don’t use windymaps, so I was looking on wikiloc to see what was available. It looks like there is a route, part of the Camiño dos Faros, which goes directly from Lires to the lighthouse at Finisterre. There must be a spur from the town of Finisterre.

@trecile, or anyone else, do you have any more info on getting onto that route from the town of Finisterre?

@tangata hikoi says you can get on the trail from the street Insua in Finisterre, is that how you did it?
 
Yes, that's how I got there.
Well, the last time I was in Finisterre I was foiled in my attempt to get to this alternate route. I had some wikiloc tracks, and they took me past a house and to an ominous looking sign that said paso prohibido. There were some people sitting outside the house and I asked about the trail to San Guillerme and they warned me not to go that way.

Does anyone have good tracks or a good description for how to get there?
 
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You can also get walking directions on mapy.cz. I put Hotel Rústico Finisterrae as the start point since it's close to A Insua.

Screenshot_20240108_173224_Mapycz.jpg
 
Dang, I’m racking my brain to remember what I did. I know that Insua figured somewhere in the directions I had. But looking at the maps posted, I think I must have stayed on the main road too long. I think I went past some little church on the right side going up and then turned off to the right.

Light bulb - @trecile, the route you walked didn’t go to the ruins of the Ermita de San Guillerme but did go to the Pedras Santas, right? Looking at that mappy map, it looks like it follows the ruta dos faros into the lighthouse, which I had already noted several years ago but apparently forgot. :oops: San Guillerme is much further east. I‘ll bet I was following a track to take me first to San Guillerme and then onto the lighthouse and I just got all messed up. Lesson learned, hopeful that I’ll get another chance in May!

p.s. Wow, thanks for the note about Hotel Rústico Finisterrae, because when I put that in googlemaps, I see that the whole route to the lighthouse is on streetview! This is definitely not the way I went last time.
 
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Thanks for that. Well, it looks like the most sensible thing to do would be to start at the hotel — from what I see that track goes to the turn-off for the Pedras Santas. Then continue on towards the lighthouse, and at some point that I see on wikiloc, there is a way to turn back a bit and go to the Ermita de San Guillerme. These tracks make a circle from the ermita to San Guillerme. It would be easy to combine them with the Insua route that goes all the way to the lighthouse.

Now, you may wonder, what are these places? I don’t know if they are actually connected, but they both have to do with ancient fertility rituals. A woman sitting on the Pedras Santas (this little interview is badly translated into English) would learn whether she was fertile. The Ermita de San Guillerme was originally (10C?) a hermitage. Gronze has a good description. Antón Pombo says that this was the historical route to Finisterre. There was also a fertility ritual associated with a big slab there. If a couple lay down on the slab, a child should be conceived or something like that. According to the little video, the church prohibited this practice on decency grounds and henceforth, only the woman lay on the slab and then went home to her husband to see if it worked.

Anyway, for those who have tired of walking up and back along the road, this might be an option — @trecile’s pictures were great, and combine that with some interesting ancient sites and you’ve got a great walk!
 
If you are in Finesterre for more than one night take one of the sunset cruises! I think it was only about 12€, and included some food and wine.
View attachment 55448
My favourite way of seeing the sunset. Lovely cruise, wine and food good. excellent boat run by people who know their business. Enjoy. Samarkand.
 
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Hmm, I was just looking at pictures from that day, and I had walked by a marker for the Ermita.

20190629_131709.jpg

Here are a couple of other pictures from that day.

20190629_125006.jpg

20190629_133920-1.jpg
 
Here are a couple of other pictures from that day

Look at some pictures of Pedras Santas. I think it looks like maybe you were there without knowing it! That smaller rock right next to you looks like it could be the one that tipped for some women when they sat on it. But the pictures I see are from a different vantage point so I can’t be sure.
 
Look at some pictures of Pedras Santas. I think it looks like maybe you were there without knowing it!
I found Pedras Santas on both Google Maps and mapy.cz. They aren't the same as the rocks in my photo, which were much closer to the lighthouse.

Screenshot_20240109_123700_Mapycz.jpg

Here's the location of my photo (circled in red)

Screenshot_20240109_124047_Photos.jpg
 
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