A Pobra do Caramiñal has 7,130 metres of beaches. where you can find extraordinary sandy beaches, some of them virgin, others almost unexplored by general tourism, in the form of coves where you can get lost contemplating the Ría de Arousa. where you can still see fishermen’s boats beached, with the water clean and the sun shining brightly. All the sandy areas have basic services, and many of them have medium or complete services.
This location makes it a beach with cooler waters and less sheltered than the others. This sandy area is of great beauty due to its virgin character and its complex of dunes with vegetation typical of coastal ecosystems. If we walk along it from the border with Ribeira Town Council (Palmeira parish) in the direction of where the estuary dies (north-east), the beach ends after almost a kilometre at Punta da Corna, an outcrop of scattered rocks that jut out into the sea and are known as “As Touzas da Corna”.
A beautiful semi-shell-shaped sandy area with a length of about 400 metres that ends at the “Punta da Insua”, which is a group of rocks that go into the sea and 100 metres from the coast emerge again from the water to form an islet called “Insua da Rúa”. Secluded beach, very quiet.
It is similar to the Illa beach but more extensive, with white sand in a shell-shaped sandy area that opens up from “Pedra de Salverde” to “Pedra da Barca”. A total of 800 metres of sandy beach with beautiful views of the Arousa estuary and the island of Rúa, with calm, sheltered waters. This beach has most of the services of a quality beach, being the best equipped beach in the whole municipality.
It is a small beach of about 200 metres that may well represent an extension of Cabío Beach, altered by the rocks of “Pedra da Barca”. Beautiful sandy beach with similar characteristics to the previous one and with the services of Cabío Beach.
It is an impressive site which for some years now has been accessible by means of a wooden walkway over the sea and rocks. In front of the “Punta de Cabío” is an islet called “Illote da Ingua”, and behind the “Punta de Cabío” is the “Pedra da Moura”, an extraordinary viewpoint over the estuary. The ‘Pedra da Moura’ is composed of two large stones, a lower one in the form of a slab, and an upper one with an irregular table-like finish. Several legends adorn this natural space. A Muslim woman is said to have buried a huge treasure under the stone. The sailors of Pobra used to fish in these areas of the estuary by means of traditional fishing with hooks. The elders knew the exact location of the “curubelos” and at what time of the year they took the bait in a specific place at a specific time, without GPS, but with ancestral marks. Their “compass” are these natural marks or signs in the landscape, which were passed down from father to son to locate these fishing grounds. This “Illote da Ingua”, from the sea, offers an image as if it had the “Pedra da Moura” on top of it. This sign was known by the old sailors as the “Altar da Ingua”.
From “Punta Cabío” to the northwest, there is now a range of small beaches, unspoilt coves, which combine rocks with natural white sand, with pine woods at the foot of the beach or reed beds. Many of these beaches are difficult to access at high tide. The first of these “jewels” is Cabío Beach, so called because it is located at the foot of the village of Cabío. This beach stretches from “Punta de Cabío” to “Punta Golfiña”, with the beach itself forming small coves between sand and rocks for 500 metres. Towards the end of this beach there is a small spring of crystal clear fresh water at the top of the beach, which gushes out of the sand and reeds over a stone, which is why the end of this beach is also known as “Playa de la fuente de piedra” (the beach of the stone spring).
This beach, like the previous one, is a sequence of unspoilt natural coves and pine forest vegetation on the edge of the beginning of the beach, with white sand, secluded and calm waters in the heart of the Ría de Arousa. Watching over this beach from the sea is the “Piedra Golfiña”, another of the master marks of the veteran fishermen.
Known in the village as Playa de la Ballena, officially in digital media as Ladiña beach. It is an idyllic beach, the “caribbean” in Arousa, with 120 metres of white sandy beach, secluded, calm waters. Decades ago, a huge cetacean washed up on the shore of this beach, which is why it is known in the village as Playa de la Ballena (Whale Beach). In front of the beach, in the sea, stands the “Ostreira” islet, named after a castro located on land and which served as a landmark for fishermen.
A place that oozes tranquillity and ends at “Punta dos castriños”.
In the curve of “Punta dos Castriños” there is a small beach of 100 metres in length that we can call “Playa del Vigilante“, because for decades there was a house above the sea where the beach watchman whose mission was to prevent seafood poaching had a house. You can still see the pillars of the former caretaker’s house, Mr. Rosendo, who carried out this mission, which today is carried out by the fishermen’s guilds. Near this place is located the “Castro da Ostreira”. These 100 metres of beach can be considered an extension of the previous beach with a rocky area and sandy beach.
We leave the “Playa del Vigilante” and enter a 130-metre long beach, very quiet but with stony sand. Ideal for bathing in a calm sea and enjoy swimming. The sand is very stony, but we are still in a natural paradise. In some technological media this beach is called “Playa de Diría” (Diría Beach).
The last of this group of coves is San Antonio Beach. It is a beach that stretches for the next 520 metres, from the previous beach to the mouth of the Xunderama River. It borders the wall of the old Franciscan convent and continues along the coastal walkway of the Maño Church. At the beginning there is a mass of rocks and then the sandy area begins, alternating with rocks. When you go round the end of the convent, you will see a clear sandy area with sandy spines. This whole area and the beach next to the sandy area is one of the richest seafood banks in Pobra. Pets and animals are allowed on this beach in San Antonio. Towards the middle of the beach, on the wall of the old convent, an ancient image of Saint Anthony is embedded in the wall, which is very popular in the town. This image was always lit with wax and its lights were used as a signpost for the fishermen’s boats returning from fishing at night. Many Franciscan friars left from this convent for the evangelisation of America in the 16th century and the following centuries.
It is a quiet beach, with clean, sheltered waters and some services. At the beginning of the beach, in the area bordering the “San Antonio Beach”, pets are also allowed. Throughout the 19th century, this area was home to the salting factories, which later in the 20th century were transformed into canning industries that became the industrial driving force of A Pobra and the region. This industrial movement was created and led by the Catalans who settled in Pobra in the 19th century and undertook this industrial reconversion. Today, from the sandy beach you can admire some of its houses and the remains of several factories. This Catalan movement soon became part of the identity of A Pobra and promoted various cultural manifestations of the time, including that of the pincheiros, a cultural identity that sustains the Pincheiro AT project. In the southern half of the beach you can admire the Barreras’ house. In front of this house there was a wooden port where the sailors unloaded the seafood for the family’s cannery.
