What you can see on the Camariñas webcam
The regional weather service's camera stands on the harbour wall south of the village and looks north across the calm inner basin to the fishing quay, the houses of Camariñas and the pine-covered hill above. It is a still image, and a good one for the light and the weather on this part of the coast.
Camariñas harbour across the basin
The weather station sits low on the harbour wall south of the village, and its wide lens takes in the whole inner basin of Camariñas. A breakwater armoured with granite blocks curves round the bottom and left of the picture; across the still, green water lie the fishing quay with its boats and the white and pastel houses of the village, below a pine-covered hill. Further right the shore runs on into the ría.
This is one of the most sheltered anchorages on the Costa da Morte, and the camera shows it: even on days when the open coast is white with surf, the basin is usually calm. It is the place to watch the boats come and go, and the colour of the houses in the sun. Still image, not video.
HMS Serpent and the English Cemetery
On the night of 10 November 1890, HMS Serpent, a Royal Navy torpedo cruiser bound for West Africa, was driven onto the rocks near Cape Vilán in a storm. Of the 176 men aboard, only three survived. The dead were buried where they came ashore, in a small walled enclosure that local people still call the Cemiterio dos Ingleses, the English Cemetery, on the coast near the cape. The lighthouse on Cape Vilán, lit in 1896, was the first electric lighthouse in Spain.
When to watch Camariñas
Camariñas is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland, and so far west that summer sunsets come after 10pm local time. The harbour is calm in most weather, so the camera is best for the sky and the light; the open coast at Cape Vilán, a few miles away, can be wild when the camera shows only a ripple in the basin. Autumn and winter storms on the Costa da Morte are dramatic to watch from the cape.
Around Camariñas
In the village, the lace museum shows the work of the palilleiras, the lacemakers, many of whom still work in the village. The Camiño dos Faros, the Lighthouse Way, a long-distance coastal path, passes the English Cemetery and Cape Vilán. Muxía, with its shrine on the rocks, lies across the ría, and Cape Finisterre is about 29 miles (46 km) by road.
Getting to Camariñas
Santiago de Compostela airport is about 60 miles (97 km) away, around an hour and a half by car. A lane leads from the village to Cape Vilán and its lighthouse, and the English Cemetery lies along the coast nearby.
