Buraco do Inferno

The Buraco do Inferno sits on the western, ocean-facing coast of Ons, where the Atlantic hits the island with nothing between it and Newfoundland to slow it down. The approach follows a cliff path south from the village, past the point where the walking trail turns inland; continue along the edge until the ground opens up.

At its most dramatic in a south-westerly swell — the low, steady Atlantic kind that rolls in without breaking until it hits land — when the noise from below is deep and rhythmic and the spray occasionally reaches the surface. In flat calm it is merely a hole in the ground with a view. Check conditions before planning a visit if the spectacle is the point.

things to do sight
A story
The name means Hell's Hole, and the Atlantic earns it: waves forced through a narrow sea cave below have carved a vertical shaft through the clifftop rock, so that you can stand on solid ground and hear the ocean thundering in the darkness beneath your feet. Beside the pit stands an old stone cruceiro, a wayside cross of the kind found all over Galicia — an unexpectedly devotional note next to something that sounds like it belongs to the underworld.

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