[Gocamino] New refugio news

[Rebekah Scott]

Good news on the Northern Front!  

 

So many souls are seeking out the Road to Santiago de Compostela these days that the Confraternity of Saint James in London decided to help fellow pilgrims by opening a new overnight refugio on the Camino del Norte, one of the less travelled routes. 

 

The Confraternity in May began refurbishing and staffing a pilgrim refugio in a semi-abandoned rectory in Miraz, a tiny village on an alternative pathway from the north coast of Galicia to Santiago. Miraz is in the province of Lugo, just a few days’ walk from the shrine city. The new refugio closes a 40-kilometre gap in accommodation that made this path too tough for some travellers. 

 

The Confraternity is known for the warmth of the welcome and generous hospitality it provides at Refugio Gaucelmo, a hostel it opened in 1991 and now runs in Rabanal del Camino, a village in the mountains of Leon Province.  

 

Miraz follows in the same tradition. In exchange for a donation, volunteer wardens at both refugios provide pilgrims with clean, simple bunk-bed accommodations, shelter for bicycles, horses, or pack animals, and a simple breakfast in the morning.   

 

Confraternity leaders hope to relieve some of the overcrowding now seen on the “traditional” Camino, and want also to honour the original paths walked by English pilgrims from England since medieval times. Because England is across the water to the northeast, English pilgrims often travelled by ship to the northern ports of Spain, and walked southward to Santiago de Compostela through the rocky, wet region of Galicia known as “Green Spain”.   

 

As with other pilgrim accommodation this refugio does not accept reservations. It will accommodate about 14 people overnight. It will be open from April to September and be staffed by voluntary ‘hospitaleros’ from many countries.

 

A major fund raising appeal will be launched in the Autumn.

 



Rebekah Scott, periodista
Westmoreland County bureau
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette USA
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