Village
Dumbría is a concello in A Coruña province with around 2,700 inhabitants, divided into seven parishes of the Costa da Morte, already on the way to Fisterra. At the coastal settlement of Ézaro, the river Xallas plunges directly into the sea, forming the only river mouth in Europe that falls into the Atlantic this way. The oceanic climate and the terrain give the concello a remarkable wealth of habitats, recognised in the Carnota-Monte Pindo Site of Community Importance, within the Natura 2000 network: alongside the pine, the dominant species, grow carballos, laurels and hollies, and notable among them is the so-called carballo or dwarf oak, found nowhere else in Galicia. Otters, wolves, trout and wetland birds such as herons and birds of prey live together in its mountains and rivers, especially around the Fervenza and Ponte Olveira reservoirs.
Nature
A waterfall about 40 metres high, down which the río Xallas plunges into the Atlantic in the parish of Santa Uxía do Ézaro, after dropping 155 metres in its final stretch; it is one of the few waterfalls in Europe that flow directly into the sea, and is also known as O Cadoiro. Over millions of years it has carved a canyon in Mount Pindo, 630 metres deep; as early as 1724 it was described as a great column of vapour visible from several kilometres out to sea. The surroundings, of great ecological value and included in the Natura 2000 network, are home to species unique to Galicia such as the dwarf oak and the carnivorous plant Drosera anglica, as well as otters, wolves and wetland birds. Since April 2012 the flow has been released daily under an agreement with the hydroelectric company.
Monument
An ashlar bridge over the River Xallas, some five metres wide and with round arches protected by cutwaters, dated between the 17th and 18th centuries; the Camino de Santiago towards Fisterra and Muxía enters the comarca across it.
Nature
Megalithic passage tomb raised with great granite slabs at the place of Regoelle, one of the largest in Galicia, dated between 3500 and 2700 BC and the oldest vestige of settlement in the concello, which also preserves thirty-three burial mounds spread across its hills, among them those of Prado do Rei and Pedra do Boi.
Monument
Parish church of Buxantes, in the concello of Dumbría, built around 1750 while Simón Sánchez Pulleiro was parish priest; according to the Expediente de comprobación de bienes, rentas y cargas of 1761, the priest, then 60 years old, lived with Domingo de Ézara, Jacinta Romero and Rosa Santos. Its design is attributed to Domingo Antonio de Andrade, master builder of the cathedral of Santiago, and it stands in one of the parishes crossed by the Way of St James on its extension towards the end of the world.
Activity
A rural carnival renowned across the comarca that fills the municipality's parishes with troupes and ranks among the most notable dates in the festive calendar of the interior of the Costa da Morte, alongside the pilgrimage festivals of the Virxe das Neves and Santa Lucía.
Curiosity
A Bronze Age engraved rock in a municipality that brings together a complete archaeological sequence, from megalithism to the castro culture, with castros such as As Teixoeiras, Regoelle or Berdeogas.
Curiosity
In this Romanised castro there appeared an altar fifty-two centimetres high with an inscription that can be read as a consecration to the Manes gods made as an offering by a certain Rufo.
Historical milestone
The document of Tructinio cites the place as Santa Eulalia in Donobria, the first written appearance of the toponym; the parish also figures in the list of the old diocese of Iria Flavia.
Historical milestone
The Olveira bridge crosses the Xallas river in the parish of Olveiroa, in Dumbría, and forms part of the Fisterra-Muxía route, an extension of the Camino de Santiago (Way of St James); built in the 16th century on an earlier medieval bridge and modified in 1962, it has six spans of round arches in ashlar stone, and it is already mentioned in 1477 in the Florentine Anonymous and in the itineraries of 17th-century travelers. According to what historian Francisco Mayán recorded, during the Peninsular War French troops crossed the Xallas here in 1809 on their way to Cee and Corcubión, defeated the guerrillas led by the priest of Ézaro, Xoán Pispieiro, and then razed the villages of Olveiroa and Hospital.
Activity
The hamlet preserves traces of medieval town planning and is a classic stage of the Camino de Santiago to Fisterra and Muxía; beside it stood the tower that controlled the crossing over the river Xallas.
Nature
An oak wood known as Devesa da Lúa, fitted out as a recreation area in the shade of the carballos; it is one of the concello's leisure spaces, inland from the cliffs of the Costa da Morte.
Activity
An environmental education facility installed in the hamlet of Vilafernández, with its adjoining recreation area, from which the woodland and the watercourses of the concello's interior are interpreted.