Castaño centenario de Ramil

Castaño de Ramil - ©Panoramio kedike

Walking the Camino de Santiago is a very complete experience. It offers us the chance to disconnect and spend a few days with ourselves, but also to get to know different cultures, places and monuments. From churches to forts, through trees with more than 800 years of history that become a must-see, as is the case of the centenary chestnut tree of Ramil.

The most famous tree on the Camino de Santiago

Enjoying the adventure proposed by the French Way, and after the hard ascent of O Cebreiro, we arrive at a municipality called Triacastela. There, in the village of Ramil, we find one of the most iconic elements of this route: The centenary chestnut tree of Ramil.

It is a chestnut tree that, according to the School of Forestry Engineers of Madrid, has around 850 years of history. This makes us think that when Aymeric Picaud, author of the famous Codex Calixtinus, walked the Camino de Santiago, this majestic tree was already there.

But as if its longevity were not enough, the reality is that there are more reasons why the Chestnut Tree of Ramil is so well known: its size and shape. Its 2.7 metres in diameter and 8.5 metres in perimeter make it a most peculiar chestnut tree, as well as its strange hollows and fat branches, which make it seem unique.

All this, added to other points of interest such as the pallozas of O Cebreiro or the monument to the pilgrim in Alto de San Roque, make the O Cebreiro - Triacastela stage one of the most interesting despite its hardness. And in the Camino de Santiago, even the trees are special.