Heart of water
From its source in Lugo’s A Ulloa region to its mouth in the Ría de Arousa, the river Ulla covers some 130 kilometres. It is the third largest river in Galicia, after the Miño and Sil, and acts as a provincial border between A Coruña and Pontevedra. The river receives the waters of numerous tributaries which make up an extensive river network in the centre of Galicia. On the right is located Santiago de Compostela’s river, the Sar, theme of a poem by Rosalía de Castro. On the left is the Deza, which lends its name to a region with one of the strongest cattle-raising traditions in the region.
The landscape has been moulded by traditional human activity. This is a land of paths between pasture land and the great pazos, like that of Oca (A Estrada) or Santa Cruz de Ribadulla (Vedra), with their wonderful gardens containing some veritable treasures. For this same reason, the region’s many historically important bridges are a good place from which to view the riversides.
In spite of this, sometimes the river demonstrates its fierceness with important waterfalls. The most famous is that of the river Toxa, a tributary of the Deza, which has a fall of 25 metres. Lovely trails lead to this waterfall and communicate it with the monastery of Carboeiro, which is another attraction of the area.