El Ganso

El Ganso is a small hamlet in the province of León, Castilla y León, in the Maragatería on the Camino Frances between Santa Catalina de Somoza and Rabanal del Camino. The village is one of the more evocative settlements on this stage, its combination of ruined walls, restored stone houses, and moorland setting giving it an atmosphere of ancient abandonment and survival.

The surrounding terrain is the open moorland of the Maragatería at around 1,000 metres, with heather, gorse, and scattered scrub oak covering the exposed plateau. The village has a bar that is famously the last service point before the steep climb to Rabanal and the Cruz de Ferro above.

The hamlet character, with its mix of standing ruins and inhabited buildings, is one of the more atmospheric of the Maragatería stage, the name meaning the goose adding a touch of the incongruous.