Jacobean pilgrimage attracted people and societies from all over Europe in the Middle Ages; also from the “Distant Europe”: the so-called Scandinavian countries — Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland — and above all, the English, Scottish, Irish and Flemish. All of them helped establish what we know today as the English Way.

They came to Galicia by sea from their respective ports, and arrived in Ferrol or A Coruña — and also in Viveiro or Ribadeo, on the coast of Lugo. The strategic location of the ports of these two important Galician cities evidently promoted the route.