Cape Espichel is the western tip of the Setúbal peninsula — a wind-scoured limestone headland that drops 130 metres straight to the Atlantic. The lighthouse, the Sanctuary of Nossa Senhora do Cabo, and the long colonnaded pilgrim lodgings (the Casa dos Círios) make for an extraordinary tableau in the middle of nowhere: a Baroque pilgrimage complex at the end of the world, with the sea on three sides and almost nobody about.
The sanctuary was founded in the late thirteenth century, when an image of the Virgin was reportedly discovered here; the current Baroque church dates from the eighteenth century, when the cape was one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in Portugal. The pilgrim lodgings — two long, low arcaded buildings flanking the church — held the confraternities that came each September, and most are still standing if increasingly derelict. The cliff path leads to the dinosaur footprints (see story below) and the small Ermida da Memória chapel on the cliff edge. Bring a windproof; it is exposed.