Serra da Capelada

Serra da Capelada stretches 15 kilometres along the northern coast of A Coruña province, between the municipalities of Cedeira and Cariño. Its cliffs reach 613 metres at Vixía de Herbeira, making them the highest on continental Europe's Atlantic seaboard. From the geodetic-vertex viewpoint the vertical drop to the ocean exceeds 580 metres: a wall of dark rock where north-westerly winds push clouds uphill and the roar of the surf arrives muffled by distance. The sense of scale is hard to convey; you need to stand at the edge to grasp the dimension of this coastline.

The geological substrate of Serra da Capelada is one of its most distinctive features. Ultrabasic rocks — peridotites and serpentinites — crop out here; they once formed part of the Earth's mantle before being thrust to the surface during the Hercynian orogeny over 300 million years ago. These rocks, rich in magnesium and poor in common nutrients, produce soils where only plants adapted to extreme conditions thrive. The resulting landscape is a succession of bare ridges covered in heather, gorse and sparse grassland, with peat patches in waterlogged hollows. In spring, gorse paints the hillsides yellow and the scent of heather mingles with Atlantic salt.

The sierra's fauna includes populations of feral horses (garanos) that graze freely on common land. On the first Saturday of July, locals hold the Rapa das Bestas de Cedeira, rounding up the horses for branding and deworming. Peregrine falcons and European shags nest on the cliffs, while bottlenose dolphins and harbour porpoises pass through the offshore waters. For photographers, the combination of vertical cliffs, shifting skies and free-roaming wildlife offers opportunities in every season, though the low-angle evening light of summer — when the sun drops toward the Atlantic — creates the most striking conditions.

The most-walked route starts from the Vixía de Herbeira car park and follows the ridgeline for 8 km to the Santuario de San Andrés de Teixido, one of Galicia's oldest pilgrimage sites. Local tradition holds that whoever does not visit San Andrés in life will go after death. The sanctuary, set in a fold of the cliff 200 metres above the sea, preserves wax ex-votos and a fountain where custom says to drop bread crumbs to tell your fortune. Beyond the sanctuary, the path descends to the harbour of Teixidelo, where green serpentinite rocks form a mineral beach with no sand. Cedeira, 12 km away, offers accommodation, seafood restaurants and a quiet waterfront promenade overlooking the estuary.