The pagan pleasures of Spain’s Finisterre

It was starting to feel rather spooky on the pathway to Finisterre. Only two days before I’d been in the celebratory environs of Santiago de Compostela with its endless arrivals of jubilant pilgrims. Now dark clouds were scudding across the Galician hills in the distance and the only sound I could hear was the wind blowing – in an accusatory manner, it seemed – through the trees beside me.

While Santiago de Compostela marks the official end of the famous Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, with the purported remains of St James the apostle in the basement of its cathedral, a minority of hardy souls continue for another 86 kilometres to the Galician coast. Their destination is the small fishing town of Finisterre and the surrounding cape, which exists as the mysterious pagan sibling lurking in the shadows of the Camino trail and its Christian virtues.

In ancient times Finisterre was viewed as the end of the known world.