Carril Clam Festival

Feast of the best clams in O Carril

Enjoy this tasty mollusc in a seafood sauce or in other specialities.

August starts in a big way, and Vilagarcía de Arousa knows this very well . On the 1st of August, the festivities in honour of San Roque begin in the town, which continue during the following weeks with activities, music and different events.

The Fiesta de la Almeja de Carril, although not directly linked to the San Roque festivities, coincides in time and place with them. The blonde, the slimy and the japonica are the types of clams most commonly cultivated in Spain. The rubia, of Portuguese origin, is the most successful in Galicia, and its dish, a la marinera, is the most popular.

With 500 years of official history, O Carril boasts several generations dedicated to the sea: to fish, shellfish or any other fruit that could be cultivated or extracted from the coastal waters. An art that has been commemorated with the Clam Festival for more than two decades, after more than four centuries of experience. Perhaps because of this, or because of their good humour, they have their own Order, the Order of the Clam.

Oenology lovers can always accompany clams with a good wine from O Val do Salnés with the Rías Baixas Designation of Origin. Everything is little to worship this mollusc, of which, as a curiosity, we can point out that it is the longest-lived animal in the world documented to date, with the enviable 507 years with which one of these bivalves was recently dated in Iceland. Coincidentally, the same age as the Pontevedra parish of O Carril.

There are many options forsightseeing and sightseeing in the region of O Salnés, but if we prefer to stay in the municipality we have the possibility of visiting the island of Cortegada, visiting the castro of Alobre or admiring the Petroglyph of Os Ballotes.