Espinosa del Camino

Espinosa del Camino is a small municipality in the province of Burgos, Castilla y León, situated on the Camino Frances on the ascending terrain toward Villafranca Montes de Oca. The name means thorny place of the Camino, describing the scrub thorn vegetation that characterises the hillside terrain approaching the Montes de Oca.

The village has a compact stone character with a modest church and farmhouses. The surrounding terrain shifts here from the open cereal plain to the more enclosed hillside vegetation of the Oca foothills, with gorse, hawthorn, and scrub oak covering the slopes on either side of the path.

For pilgrims, Espinosa del Camino marks the beginning of the transition from the open plain stages to the long oak forest crossing of the Montes de Oca that lies ahead.