Budiño Lighthouse:
Do you know where the lighthouse is?
This granite giant astonishes anyone passing along the Portuguese Way of St. James when looking at the watchtower of the mountain range of the same name, to the northeast of the valley you are travelling through.
A mass of stone that seems to have fallen from the sky and embedded in our planet. Although it may seem extraterrestrial, the geological power of the area has created more than 100 metres of vertical walls whose height is called “the lighthouse”. And why, if there is no light…?
The answer does not yet seem to have a clear answer, but when we reach the top we can see a large number of granite blocks that since ancient times have been used as a refuge for different peoples. Many of them used to warn each other from miles away of the different incursions or invasions, and they did so by means of “fachos”, lighting bonfires in high points that were seen from other watchtowers in the sierras, and always also called… FAROS!
Distance from this QR to Faro de Budiño
Recommendations:
If you like climbing… don’t hesitate to climb! Sectors
Taxi to get there
Continue along the sierra and go down to Porriño through Cans (north of the sierra).
Use the whole day
Nearby QRs:
Websites of interest:
https://turismoriasbaixas.com/gl/recursopan1?content=280379451
More information:
Faro Budiño was formed in the Hercynian Orogeny, in a period between the Middle Devonian (390 million years ago) and the Upper Carboniferous (318 million years ago). It was uplifted by the collision of tectonic plates of two small continents (Laurentia and Baltica) with those of the large continent of Gondwana (present-day South America, Africa, Madagascar, Hindustan, Australia and Antarctica).
The massif is a mass of magma formed deep beneath the Earth’s crust and has been emerging towards the surface, where it has arrived consolidated after a slow cooling process, a so-called postkinetic pluton.
As far as the rocks present in the Faro Budiño mountain range are concerned, they are mainly medium-coarse and coarse-grained granites. In some areas of this massif, the presence of potassium feldspar has given the rocks the characteristic colour known as pink-Porriño, which at certain times has generated interest in the stone from this area. Fortunately, the main use of this place is climbing, in different modalities: classic, sport and bouldering. And in all these modalities, Faro Budiño is one of the most important places in Galicia and even in Spain. In the 20th century, several climbers had to stand in front of the machinery that wanted to take stone from this place, but defending their mountain, their stone and what they call “their life”, they managed to stop such a crazy plan.
Nowadays it is one of the most important climbing schools in Galicia and people from all over the world come here to practice climbing.