What you can see on the Corrubedo webcam
The regional weather service has a camera inside the park, looking over the pines behind the dunes to a long, pale beach and the surf rolling in from the open ocean, with a village on a low point of the coast far off to the right. It is a still image, best for checking the waves, the wind and the light before a visit.
The open beach and the pines of the dunes park
MeteoGalicia's weather station inside the Corrubedo natural park looks out over the tops of the pines behind the dunes to a long, pale beach facing the open Atlantic. Lines of surf roll in across the whole width of the picture, and far off on the right a village sits on a low point of the coast, with a hill rising behind it.
There is no promenade and no town in the shot, only sand, scrub and sea, which is exactly why the park is protected: its dunes and lagoons shelter scarce nesting birds such as the Kentish plover. Use the camera for the size of the waves, for the wind, which can whip sand off the dunes, and for the mist that sometimes sits on this coast while the land behind is sunny. Still image, not video.
Dunes, lagoons and birds
The park covers about 10 sq km (4 sq miles) in the municipality of Ribeira. Behind the beach, the dunes shelter two lagoons of very different character: Carregal, open to the sea and salty, and Vixán, fed by fresh water. The whole complex has been a Ramsar wetland of international importance since 1993, and the dunes are a nesting ground for scarce shore birds such as the Kentish plover and the stone-curlew, while ducks and waders gather on the lagoons in winter. Boardwalks and marked paths lead through the park; keep to them, as the dunes are fragile.
When to watch Corrubedo
Galicia is one hour ahead of the UK. The beach faces the open Atlantic, so swell and wind arrive here unfiltered: big waves in autumn and winter, often smaller and cleaner in summer. Morning mist sometimes sits on the coast and lifts during the day. Summer evenings are long, with sunsets over the sea at around 10pm local time in June.
Around Corrubedo
Corrubedo village, with its harbour and lighthouse, lies at the northern end of the park. A few miles north, the Castro de Baroña is an Iron Age fort on a rocky islet joined to the shore by a sand bar, and the Dolmen de Axeitos, a stone burial chamber thousands of years old, stands in the woods near Ribeira. The fishing port of Ribeira itself is one of the busiest in Galicia.
Getting to Corrubedo
Santiago de Compostela airport is about 56 miles (90 km) away, roughly an hour and a quarter by car. There are car parks at the edge of the park, and the visitor centre explains its wildlife.
