A long day of 16.5 miles, mostly on quiet country roads across the Lugo plateau, with no real climbs. A signed detour leads to Santalla de Bóveda, a painted late-Roman chamber, and after San Román da Retorta the route follows the line of a Roman road to a small old bridge over the Ferreira. A Ponte Ferreira is a hamlet of fewer than 50 people with five places to stay, no public albergue and no hotel, and only one of them is open all year, so book ahead.
16.5 miles, mostly on quiet roadsDetour to Santalla de Bóveda, mile 7Roman road from San Román, mile 11.4Five places, no public albergue: book aheadMost beds close for the winter
Distance
16.5 miles26.5 km
Climbing
1,710 ft up1,480 ft down
High point
1,920 ftLow point 1,230 ft
Walking time
6 to 7 hours
Difficulty
Hard
Beds in A Ponte Ferreira
5 placesFew
Map of the stage
Places to stay in A Ponte Ferreira
Nearby, if A Ponte Ferreira is full
Or sleep in San Román da Retorta
Look out for
The walk12Places to stay: green for dorms, blue for rooms3Other places to stayASightsVillages on the wayDashed ring: position approximate
The line is the waymarked route as OpenStreetMap has it. Places to stay are where Gronze or their own websites put them. Tap a marker for details; the numbers and letters match the cards and the lists below.
Where to sleep in A Ponte Ferreira
5 places · Few
Five private places with 68 dorm beds, about 20 private rooms and two apartments: four albergues and a casa rural, but no public albergue and no hotel. Most close for the winter: Cruz Ferreira on 30 September and Albergue Ponte Ferreira and A Nave at the end of October; only Pensión Km 73 is open all year.
Private albergue · dorm
Albergue Ponte Ferreira
A restored stone farmhouse with a bar and a terrace by a stream, known for its communal dinner. New management since 2023.
Beds
22 dorm beds in two dorms
Price
Dorm €18; communal dinner €15; breakfast €5
Season
1 April to 31 October
Where
At O Carballal, the far end of the hamlet, on the route 330 yards past the bridge
Meals
Bar; communal dinner and breakfast; packed lunch on request
A converted farm with a bar-restaurant that does vegan and gluten-free menus, two eight-bed dorms with their own bathrooms and private rooms with bathrooms. The best choice here for a private room.
Beds
16 dorm beds in two dorms and 11 private rooms (nine doubles, two triples)
Price
Dorm €18; single €50; double €60; triple €70
Season
March to October; other dates for large groups only
Where
In the hamlet at A Covela, 45 yards from the route
Meals
Bar-restaurant with vegan and gluten-free menus; vending machines
Booking
Phone, WhatsApp, email, its website or Booking.com
A small albergue with a garden at A Mámoa, before the hamlet and a short signed walk off the route. It serves a €14 menu and simple plates. New management since 2024, and the earliest to close in autumn.
Beds
18 dorm beds in five rooms
Price
Dorm from €14; menu €14
Season
1 April to 30 September
Where
About 1,000 yards before the hamlet, 165 yards off the route on a signed detour
Meals
Menu €14, combination plates and breakfast; microwave and fridge
Listed as a pensión but mostly dorms: three rooms of four bunks, plus two apartments. Check-in and meals are at the Cantina Ferreira, 55 yards away. The only place here open all year.
Beds
12 dorm beds in three rooms of four bunks, and two apartments
Price
Dorm €20; apartment €70
Season
All year
Where
In the hamlet at Covela, on the route
Meals
Meals at the Cantina Ferreira next door, from 12:30
An early 20th-century farmhouse by the river and the bridge, run for rural tourism since 1995. Its own site also offers the whole house from €20 a person.
At As Seixas, 3.5 miles past A Ponte Ferreira, 110 yards off the route on a signed detour
The nearest public albergue, the reason Gronze ends the stage at A Ponte Ferreira rather than here. No bookings; Casa Goriños bar and Albergue A Toqueira serve dinner.
The older way to split Lugo to Melide: 11.4 miles from Lugo, then 17.5 miles to Melide. The village has a bar that sells a few groceries; the beds are half a mile on at Castrelo. Gronze also lists Apartamentos San Román (from €60) and SuitesNature EcoCamp bungalows (from €75), and says a couple of nearby rural houses offer free transfers.
Public albergue · dormPilgrims onlyOpen all year
Albergue de peregrinos de San Román da Retorta
A small rural building fitted out as a temporary Xunta albergue in 2008 and still in use. Toilets and showers are in a separate block outside.
Beds
12 dorm beds in two dorms
Price
Dorm €10
Season
All year; check-in 13:00
Where
At Castrelo, on the route 870 yards past the village; the bar is back in the village
HardHard only because of its length: 16.5 miles is over the 15.5-mile line, while the 1,700 ft of climbing is spread thinly over gentle roads.
Guides' own ratings: Eroski: media (Lugo to San Román only); Gronze: 2
Underfoot. Mostly quiet local roads, with farm tracks after San Román; more asphalt than most stages.
Leave Lugo's walls by the Puerta de Santiago and go down the Calzada da Ponte to the Ponte Vella, Roman in origin but much rebuilt, to cross the Miño. After a short stretch beside the river the route climbs away through San Lázaro, passes under the N-540 and crosses the LU-232, then settles onto the LU-2901, a quiet road it follows for most of the morning through Seoane, San Vicente do Burgo and Bacurín. A few short stretches of track break up the asphalt, and the signed turn for Santalla de Bóveda comes after San Vicente, at about mile 7. At the church of San Román da Retorta, mile 11.4, the waymarked route takes the Vía Romana, a track on the line of the old Roman road, past the albergues at Castrelo and through O Burgo de Negral, Pacio, Pena da Galiña and Mosteiro. It ends by crossing the Ferreira on a small single-arch stone bridge into the hamlet. There are no hard climbs; the challenge is the distance and the asphalt.
Good to know
Food is thin after Lugo: the first bar is in San Vicente do Burgo at mile 5.9, then Mesón de Crecente and San Román, so carry lunch.
Gronze lists no shop in A Ponte Ferreira; meals come from the albergues and the Cantina Ferreira, which serves from 12:30.
Book your bed: A Ponte Ferreira has no public albergue, and only Pensión Km 73 says it is open all year.
Eroski warns that the turn for Santalla de Bóveda is easy to miss if you walk on the left side of the road.
Santalla de Bóveda is usually closed on Sundays and Mondays and was shut for conservation work in 2025, so check before you detour.
From Lugo you are inside the final 62 miles (100 km) that count for the Compostela, where the Pilgrim Office asks for two stamps a day; albergues, bars and churches stamp credentials.
If you stop at San Román, the Xunta albergue's 12 beds can't be booked, and its toilets and showers are outside the building.
Along the way
Mile 1.4
San Lázaro
Bars on the edge of Lugo
Mile 5.9
San Vicente do Burgo
Bar As Searas, about 110 yards off the route; vending machines
Mile 10.1
Mesón de Crecente
Restaurant about 110 yards off the route
Mile 11.4
San Román da Retorta
Bar selling a few groceries; two albergues and a rental house half a mile on at Castrelo
Mile 13.7
O Burgo de Negral
Rural hotel with meals, a pensión and a rental house
A small vaulted chamber with a pool in its floor, probably built in the 4th century and buried for centuries under the parish church of Bóveda until it was found in 1926. Its walls and vault are painted with birds, among them peacocks, pigeons and pheasants, in a late-Roman style. No one knows what it was for: water worship and the cult of Cybele are the usual suggestions, some guides call it an early Christian temple, and it was later used as a church. It has been a national monument since 1931.
The Roman road
The Antonine Itinerary, a Roman list of roads, records the Vía XIX linking Bracara Augusta (Braga) and Lucus Augusti (Lugo), and the Camino from Lugo roughly follows its line. From San Román the waymarked route takes a track known as the Vía Romana; a single milestone, which Eroski calls a replica, stands just past the village.
The bridge at Ferreira
Pascual Madoz's 19th-century gazetteer thought the bridge was Roman, next to the Roman road station of Ponte Martiae. The Xunta's heritage survey of the route classes the present bridge as medieval. The hamlet beside it had almost emptied before pilgrims brought it back to life.
Look out for
Mile 0.6
Ponte Vella over the Miño. Lugo's old bridge, Roman in origin but heavily rebuilt, carries the route over the Miño at the bottom of the town.
Mile 7.1
Turn for Santalla de Bóveda. The signed turn comes after San Vicente do Burgo. Bóveda is about 1.5 miles off the route and you can loop back to the Camino near Bacurín, about 3 miles extra in all; it is usually open Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 15:00, and free.
Mile 8.1
San Miguel de Bacurín. A Romanesque church first recorded in 1160, beside the manor house of the same name; the Bóveda loop rejoins the route here.
Mile 11.4
San Román church. Only the doorways and side columns survive from the 12th-century Romanesque church. The Vía Romana starts here.
Mile 11.9
Milestone at Castrelo. A Roman milestone, a replica according to Eroski, stands by the track just past the village, near the albergues.
Mile 16.5
The Ferreira bridge. A small single-arch stone bridge at the end of the day; Casa Rural da Ponte stands just before it and Albergue Ponte Ferreira 330 yards beyond.
What couldn't be confirmed, and where sources disagree
Climbing: Gronze's two figures, 1,710 ft and 1,480 ft, aren't labelled. They're read as up and down, which fits Lugo at about 1,510 ft and A Ponte Ferreira at about 1,770 ft. The high and low points are Senditur's, Castrelo at 1,920 ft and San Lázaro at 1,230 ft; the Miño crossing may be a little lower.
Santalla de Bóveda: it was closed from 8 January to 8 March 2025 for conservation work, according to El Progreso, and a forum thread in May 2025 reported it closed for restoration. A forum moderator still recommended the detour in January 2026, and inspain.org lists it as open Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 15:00, free. Whether it is open in 2026 couldn't be confirmed.
Detour: a forum puts Bóveda about 1.6 miles off the route, returning via Bacurín; Senditur gives about 3.1 miles for the whole visit. Eroski puts the turn at its mile 7.3, which is about mile 7.1 on Gronze's distances.
Ferreira bridge: Gronze, Senditur and Madoz call it Roman; the Xunta's heritage survey calls it medieval.
A Nave de Ferreira: its own website, updated July 2026, describes 40 beds in 13 rooms and gives check-in from 13:30; Gronze gives 13:00 to 19:45.
Casa Rural da Ponte: Gronze lists a single at €50; its own website offers the whole house from €20 a person and gives no room count.
Cruz Ferreira: Gronze gives 18 beds from €14; its own website still shows 22 beds and a €12 launch offer, and looks out of date.
Websites: ponteferreira.com now redirects to albergueprimitivoponteferreira.com.
San Román da Retorta: Gronze gives a phone for the Xunta albergue, +34 676 610 721.
Confirmed October 2026. Each place to stay shows when its own details were confirmed. Phone numbers, prices and opening seasons change from year to year, so confirm them before you rely on them.