As we came down the steep hill into O Barqueiro, a low mist and drizzly rain obscured the surrounding hills and seascape. The weather had been bright and cheery when we left Viveiro for the short trip around the coast, but if Galician weather is famed for one thing, it is its changeable nature – even in August. We would play hide and seek with the sun the whole trip. Sure enough, the next day dawned with blue skies and bright sunshine.
We were staying for a few days in an apartment up the hill from O Barqueiro’s small port. On our first morning we strolled back to the port to see the ‘town’ illuminated in the sun. Walking through narrow lanes between houses, it was clear O Barqueiro is actually a village. The brightly painted houses stretching up the hillside above the harbour, where small fishing boats bob up and down, make it one of the region’s most picturesque.
It’s a beautiful and peaceful place, especially viewed with a glass of Albariño in hand from the port side Cofradía de Pescadores. A tiny bar that serves delicious homemade fish croquetas, they occasionally pass round free slices of tortilla to the drinkers. On the wall of the bar was a faded newspaper clipping telling the story of U-966, a Nazi submarine sunk by the Allies just up the coast from O Barqueiro in 1943 and recently rediscovered.
A British plane was shot down while attacking U-966, and there were several burials in a nearby cemetery. That may have been the last real excitement O Barqueiro witnessed, because apart from a steady stream of day trippers the village defines ‘sleepy’. It is, however, the perfect place from which to explore the surrounding coast, including the Bares Peninsular, the most northerly point in Spain.
The region is famed for beautiful sandy beaches, one of the finest is the Playa de Esteiro which sits in the middle of rugged cliffs. It’s a truly spectacular beach facing the wild Atlantic Ocean and fringed by pine woods. On a hot sunny day the water is as inviting as any I’ve ever swum in, even if it is a little colder. There’s a small stream that runs into the ocean and a wooden boardwalk that leads hikers up onto the cliffs above.
We spent a morning splashing around in the water before heading further up the Bares Peninsular for lunch in the equally attractive village of O Porto de Bares. Another tiny place sitting on a sheltered promontory and a wide arc of sandy beach, colourful fishing boats sit in the small harbour, from where you can look back over the village to the hills behind.
As well as dating back to the Romans, Bares is the most northerly human settlement in Spain. Add to that several restaurants serving up delicious local seafood and it is a must visit place if you’re in the area. The village is said to have a permanent population of only 77 people, but in summer those numbers swell. We were fortunate to find an outdoor table in the shade above the harbour.
We had a traditional stew for lunch, the fish fresh from the morning catch. There’s little to see or do in the village so we headed to the Hotel Semáforo de Bares. The hotel sits on a hilltop 210m above Bares, and is a former 19th century military building that used flag signals to communicate with passing ships. The views are immense, and from this vantage point we could see to the furthest most tip of the Iberian Peninsula at Da Estaca lighthouse.
Back in O Barqueiro’s port, we watched as the sun set with a cold glass of Albariño and asked ourselves why it had taken us so long to ‘discover’ this region. It is such a beautiful area and this won’t be the last time we visit.
