The second Camiño Verde day crosses quiet farm country on muddy lanes and tracks with no bar or shop for about 12 miles, then joins the Camino del Norte for the last miles to Sobrado dos Monxes and its great Cistercian monastery. It is the worse marked of the two Verde days, and walkers met loose dogs on it in 2024, 2025 and 2026. Sobrado has beds for everyone: a 98-bed albergue inside the monastery that takes no bookings, a private albergue, two pensiones, a hotel, two apartments and the monks' own guest house.
Detour to the tower of San Paio de NarlaOnly water: fountain at A Laxe, mile 6First bar at O Mesón, mile 12Sleep inside the monasteryVespers with the monks at 19:00
Distance
15.5 miles25 km; or 15.5 miles via Via Foxo do Cabrito
Climbing
910 ft up
Walking time
6 to 7 hours
Difficulty
Moderate
Beds in Sobrado dos Monxes
8 placesPlenty
Map of the stage
Places to stay in Sobrado dos Monxes
Look out for
The walk12Places to stay: green for dorms, blue for roomsASightsVillages 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 Sobrado dos Monxes
8 places · Plenty
Sobrado has room for everyone most nights: the monastery's 98-bed albergue (no bookings), a 28-bed private albergue, two pensiones on the square, a hotel, two apartments and the monks' own guest house. Only the monastery albergue says it is open all year; Albergue Lecer closes from November to February.
Religious albergue · dormPilgrims onlyOpen all year
Albergue de peregrinos del Monasterio de Sobrado
Dorms inside the monastery, run by volunteer hosts, with a big kitchen and dining room in the old stables. You can visit the monastery free and join the monks for Vespers and Compline.
Beds
98 bunks in 8 dorms
Price
€10
Season
All year
Where
Inside the monastery, on the Camino del Norte
Meals
Shared kitchen and dining room; supermarket nearby; no meals. Gronze lists a washer and dryer, but the monastery's own page mentions only hand-washing and drying lines.
Booking
No reservations: first come, first served. Opens at 13:00, closes at 22:00. Credential required.
The monks' guest house, meant for retreat and rest but open to all, with private rooms, full board and the monks' services next door. Phone well ahead: a walker who phoned the day before in May 2026 found the monastery's rooms full.
Beds
22 double and 8 single rooms with bathrooms, plus the Casa del Arco annexe with 14 rooms and group space
Where
In the monastery; the Casa del Arco annexe is 55 yards outside
Meals
Full board available
Booking
Phone, 10:00 to 13:30 and 16:30 to 18:45: +34 650 246 958 or +34 630 641 923
Private albergue with a single 28-bed dorm, a short walk from the centre, with a kitchen, washer and dryer, and breakfast available. It changed management in 2026.
Beds
28 bunks in one dorm
Price
€15
Season
1 March to 31 October
Where
Rúa Casiñas 12, 110 yards from the centre
Meals
Shared kitchen; breakfast available
Booking
Booking.com or phone (+34 627 609 911 or +34 628 335 306); check-in from 15:00
Six rooms above a café on the square, facing the monastery gate; walkers in 2024 praised the breakfast and the location, though the square is noisy during fiestas. Booking on its website gives 5 percent off and free cancellation, and check-in is by code.
Beds
6 rooms for 2 or 3 people, all with private bathrooms
Price
Single from €43, double from €52 (Gronze, October 2026)
Where
Praza Porta 2, on the square opposite the monastery entrance
Twelve rooms on the main square, some looking onto the monastery, with a lift and a café downstairs serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. Walkers in 2023 liked the breakfast.
Beds
12 rooms: doubles, twins and a family room for 4
Price
Single from €40, double from €55, triple €75, family room for 4 €95 (Gronze, October 2026)
Where
Praza Portal 17, central
Meals
Café downstairs with breakfast, lunch and dinner
Booking
Its website, email, phone or Booking.com; check-in at any hour with a code
From Lugo, this ending leaves the Primitivo for the Camiño Verde to Sobrado dos Monxes, follows the Camino del Norte to Boimorto, then takes the Xunta's signed branch through A Mota, which meets the Camino Francés only near Santiago airport, 8.5 miles from the cathedral. It's about 65 miles over four days, against 62 miles over five on the main route. Recent walkers met almost no one on it, but beds are few, there are long stretches with no food or water, and the first two days have no official waymarks.
The Camiño Verde, Lugo to Sobrado, is an unofficial route marked with green arrows by a volunteer from Friol. Reports from 2024 to 2026 range from well marked to no signs at all, so carry a GPS track; Wikiloc has the route maker's own. The riverside boardwalks just out of Lugo were in poor condition in May 2026, and that stretch floods after heavy rain.
There's no bar, shop or reliable water for the whole first day, and none for about 12 miles on the second. Walkers also report mud, brambles (wear long trousers), a horse enclosure to walk around and loose dogs.
Beds are the weak point. Friol has no albergue, and its cheap pensión was reported closed for good in October 2026, leaving two hotels, both best booked before you leave Oviedo. From November to March there may be no bed in Friol at all. Book Twin Pines too.
The A Mota branch has been signed by the Xunta since 2017. It's flat but mostly on asphalt with little shade. Keep to the signs for Lavacolla: two other local branches from Boimorto lead to Santa Irene and O Pedrouzo on the Francés.
The Camiño Verde isn't a recognised route, and the Pilgrim Office asks for the last 100 km on one route; the Norte part is only about 33 miles. Walkers who took it have reported getting the Compostela, but the most recent reports are from 2022. Collect two dated stamps a day, at Friol and Sobrado's monastery among others, and email the Pilgrim Office before you go if the certificate matters to you.
Bag services may not cover the Camiño Verde, so check with Correos or Pilbeo before you rely on one.
ModerateAbout 15.5 miles with little climbing, but with muddy, overgrown lanes, a short ford and the route's patchiest waymarking.
Underfoot. Farm lanes and forest tracks, some overgrown and very muddy, then the Camino del Norte's lanes and roads for the last 5 miles or so.
Leaving Friol is the most confusing moment on the Verde, so have the track open: in 2023 walkers found the written directions did not match the path and met a junction with no arrow. Early on, a short detour reaches the medieval tower of San Paio de Narla (1.1 miles there and back). The route then winds west on farm lanes through Xiá and Ordoñez, some churned by cattle and one flooded ankle-deep for about 45 yards, to the fountain in the old wash-house at A Laxe, about 6 miles in, the only water reported. Near Candaíde the lane runs between high walls and was very muddy in June 2024; further on the arrows lead through the fenced fields of a horse farm, where white arrows that turn off at its gate are not the Verde, and where Mapy.com differs from the arrows. At the fork for Foxo do Cabrito the arrows keep to the Marco das Pías line, and the last stretch past a cattle grid is overgrown and wet before Xunta waymarks and yellow arrows show you have joined the Camino del Norte. From there it is road walking, busier at first, to the first bars at O Mesón, about 12 miles in, and then 3.3 miles more on the Norte to Sobrado, passing the lake below the monastery.
Route
Distance
Climbing
Via Marco das Pías (marked line)
15.5 miles
The way the green arrows go.
Via Foxo do Cabrito
15.5 miles
The route maker's alternative near the end; in October 2024 a walker found no arrows for it and judged it mostly road.
Good to know
Carry all your food and at least 2 litres of water: the fountain at A Laxe, about 6 miles in, is the only water reported before O Mesón, though the route maker says locals will fill a bottle if you ask.
Waymarking is patchier than on day one: a walker on the Gronze forum (walked September 2025) found no signs at all from Friol to Sobrado, while others from 2024 to 2026 found it well marked, so keep the GPS track open.
Loose dogs: walkers met several on this day in July 2026, a husky-type dog at Xiá in July 2025 and two at Ordoñez in October 2024; one walker was bitten by a mastiff at a farm (reported May 2026, date of walk not given).
Close gates behind you through the horse farm and cattle fields; a string across the path is a cattle fence, not a closure.
Sobrado's monastery albergue takes no bookings and opens at 13:00; in May 2024 the registration queue was 20 people long and slow, so book a pensión if you want a private room.
The Verde isn't a recognised route, so collect two dated stamps today, for example at O Mesón's bars and at the monastery.
The monastery albergue lists the Correos bag-transfer service, but check with Correos before relying on it for the Verde days.
Along the way
Start
Friol
Bars, restaurants, supermarket, bank
Mile 6.2
A Laxe
Drinking fountain in the old wash-house; nothing else
The fortified tower house of San Paio de Narla, also called the Torre de Xiá, is first recorded in 1350 as the seat of the Seixas family. It was attacked in the Irmandiño peasant revolt and repaired, later remodelled as a home, and once sold to a buyer who meant to pull it down for its stone, before the provincial council bought it in 1939. Since 1983 it has housed the ethnographic section of Lugo's provincial museum.
Sobrado's monastery
A monastery was founded here in 952 by Count Hermenegildo Alóitez and his wife Paterna, but it had been abandoned by the early 12th century. In 1142 the Traba family gave it to monks sent by Bernard of Clairvaux, and it became one of the great Cistercian houses of Galicia, founding Valdediós in Asturias. Most of what stands today was built after 1498; the huge Baroque church was consecrated in 1708, and the medieval kitchen and chapter house survive.
Ruin and return
The monastery was suppressed in 1834 and sold off, and its buildings fell into ruin. From 1954 Trappist monks from Viaceli in Cantabria rebuilt it, and a community moved in on 25 July 1966; about 16 monks live there now. In 2015 it was listed by UNESCO as part of the Camino's northern routes.
A lake made by monks
The Lagoa de Sobrado is artificial. The monks made it about 1500 to 1530 by damming small streams, to water their meadows, drive mills and raise fish. It covers about 25 acres at 1,673 ft.
Pilgrims at Sobrado
The monks have taken in pilgrims since the 12th century. Today's albergue occupies rooms of the pilgrims' cloister and was renovated in 2020.
Look out for
Mile 1.2
San Paio de Narla. A 1.1-mile round trip through woods leads to the tower; a group in June 2026 found it well kept and free to enter. Check the museum's opening hours before you plan on going inside.
Mile 6.2
Fountain at A Laxe. The drinking fountain is inside the old wash-house. Fill every bottle.
Mile 12.0
O Mesón. The first bar since Friol; walkers in 2025 and 2026 found the owners of Bar Suso very welcoming.
Mile 15.5
The monastery. Open to visitors 10:30 to 13:30 (Sundays 12:15 to 13:30) and 16:30 to 19:00 in October 2026, and free for albergue guests. Vespers is at 19:00 and Compline at 21:15, with Lauds and Mass at 7:45. Guided tours stop from 18 October 2026 to 1 March 2027.
Mile 15.5
From the monks' shop. The monks sell their own dulce de leche, abbey beer and chocolates. The area makes Arzúa-Ulloa cheese, and the local dish is trout fried with ham and paprika.
What couldn't be confirmed, and where sources disagree
Distance: Gronze has no stage for Friol to Sobrado. The route guide gives 15.5 miles; the 910 ft of climbing comes from an earlier GPS log and hasn't been checked.
San Paio de Narla: the 1.1-mile round trip to the tower is from a June 2026 post on the Gronze forum, and how far into the day the turn comes is an estimate.
Joining the Norte: walkers say the Verde joins the Camino del Norte near the Marco das Pías, and a 2023 walker put the bar at O Mesón about 2 miles beyond the junction. A 2026 walker put Bar Suso at O Mesón 12.0 miles from Friol, and Gronze gives O Mesón to Sobrado as 3.3 miles, so about the last 5 miles are on the Norte. The exact junction couldn't be pinned down.
O Mesón: the 2018 guide names Bar Muso or Bar Cepo; posts from 2025 and 2026 name Bar Suso.
Monastery: guided tours stop from 18 October 2026 to 1 March 2027 (the monastery's site misprints the end year as 207). Gronze's town page calls the monks Benedictine; the monastery and Wikipedia say Trappist (Cistercians of the Strict Observance). The monastery gives 16 monks, Spanish Wikipedia about thirty. Gronze dates the Magdalena chapel to the 12th century, English Wikipedia to the 14th.
Monastery albergue: Gronze lists a washer and dryer, but the monastery's own page (last changed September 2025) mentions only hand-washing and washing lines. It was renovated in 2020 (the monastery) or 2021 (Gronze).
Hospedería: the monks' guest house (22 doubles, 8 singles, full board) is open to all but is a retreat house; it isn't on Gronze and publishes no prices. A May 2026 walker who phoned the day before found the monastery's accommodation full; since the albergue takes no bookings, this was presumably the hospedería.
Pensión Sobrado: its site lists 5 rooms, though it says it has 6.
Hotel San Marcus: Gronze shows no prices and two asterisks after its name, probably two stars, and had temporarily turned off recommendations for it.
Albergue Lecer: Gronze says it changed management in 2026.
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.