ABSTRACT
Throughout the Middle Ages one of the great pilgrimage routes led to the shrine of St James at Compostela in Galicia. This was one of the outposts of western Christianity, near to the north-west corner of Spain and some way beyond the area of Moorish conquest. It could be reached overland from the Pyrenees or by sea along the Atlantic coastline. The pilgrims travelled over considerable distances, some of them from as far away as the British Isles (Fig. 3.1).
