What is the shortest Camino walk?

The shortest Camino walk is the route known as the Camino Ingles, in Northern Galicia. The Camino Ingles has, in fact, two official starting points: the port-cities of A Coruña and Ferrol, located 75km and 113kms away from Santiago, respectively.

Pilgrims can easily walk the Camino Ingles in just a few days, but you must bear in mind that you will need to walk at least 100kms to receive your Compostela certificate, which makes Ferrol a preferred route for pilgrims.

The Camino Ingles is a traditional route taken by pilgrims from Northern Europe on their way to Santiago de Compostela, particularly those from Ireland and Britain, who would travel by boat and land on the northern shores of Galicia to continue their pilgrimage by foot.

What happens if you walk from A Coruña instead of Ferrol?

If you rather walk from A Coruna, you can either request your Certificate of Distance which is available to all pilgrims or walk a pilgrimage trail in your home country before heading to Santiago, in order to request your Compostela Certificate.

In Ireland, you can walk 25kms on one of the country’s pilgrims trails beforehand and request your Irish Compostela from the Camino Society based at Saint James Church in Dublin 8. With this in hand, along with your stamped pilgrim passport for the 75kms-route from A Coruna, you will be able to request the Compostela at the Pilgrims Office in Santiago.

You can find a list of approved pilgrim trails in Ireland here: Camino Society Ireland.

In the UK, you can stamp your Camino pilgrim passport when walking the pilgrim trail from Finchale Abbey to Durham Cathedral for instance, as the trail is now also officially recognised as part of the Camino Inglés. The distance walked in the UK will be added to the distance walked on the Camino Ingles in Galicia. You can find a list of all official pilgrim routes in the UK on the website of the Confraternity of St James here: Camino in the UK.

We hope you find this blog post about the shortest Camino walk useful, check out all our Camino tours and talk to our travel experts to start planning an unforgettable journey on the Camino Ingles.