Oyambre

Oyambre is the name of a natural park in the municipality of San Vicente de la Barquera, in Cantabria, encompassing the coastal terrain between Comillas and San Vicente de la Barquera. The park protects one of the most complete Atlantic coastal ecosystems on the Cantabrian coast, combining dune systems, estuary wetland, salt marsh, and coastal grassland.

The Oyambre headland, a rocky promontory jutting into the Bay of Biscay, gives the park its name and its most dramatic coastal feature. The beach and dune system below the headland is one of the longer and more intact on this stretch of coast, with marram grass dunes backed by the salt marsh of the Bío estuary.

For pilgrims on the Camino del Norte, the Oyambre natural park section is one of the most scenically exceptional stages of the Cantabrian route, passing through protected coastal wilderness terrain on the approach to San Vicente de la Barquera.