Castromaior

Castromaior is a small hamlet of the parish of the same name, in the Lugo municipality of Portomarín, which the French Way crosses on its final stretch towards Santiago. Its name evokes the monument that has made it famous: the Castro de Castromaior, one of the most important Iron Age sites in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula and the only significant hillfort the pilgrim encounters on the way through Galicia. Inhabited between the 4th century BC and the 1st century AD, it preserves an impressive enclosure of circular dwellings, walls and ditches that stretches just a few metres from the Camino, on a rise overlooking the valley. Beside the houses stands the church of Santa María, a Romanesque temple from the late 12th century with a sober doorway. The hamlet also marks the start of one of the most demanding climbs of the day, the one ascending towards the Sierra de Ligonde. For the walker, Castromaior is a brief but memorable stop: a handful of stone houses, a bar in which to recover one's strength, and the rare chance to glimpse the Galicia of the hillforts before continuing on towards Palas de Rei.