The natural richness has its roots well rooted in this territory, the rough landscape in the north of the municipality, marked by the foothills of the Serra de Queixa and the massif of Cabeza de Manzada, become softer in the south of the Verin valley.

The main charm of Castrelo do Val is made up of the Nature Reserve of the Invernadeiro that makes part of the wide space of Serra de Queixa-Montes do Invernadeiro whose maximum altitude is reached in this municipality with 1,291 meters at Pena Nofre.

The fluvial network is led by the Tamega River that flows towards the south as it is affluent of the Duero River and bathes the southerner lands in the municipality as well as the Camba River dammed in the dam known as “Portas dam”. The fluvial network is completed with plenty of rivers, streams and waterfalls which crystalline waters are suitable for proliferation of trout and eels.

The relief, the hydrographic network and the climate mark an extraordinary landscape decorated by a mixed vegetation consisting of oaks (Quercus robur) and chestnuts (Castanea satiba) with the presence amongst them of a variety of oak named (Quercus pyrenaica), holly trees (Ilex aquifolium), yew trees (Taxus baccata) or the aloe (Prunus spinosa). At higher altitudes, bushes made up of species such as heather and broom replace the forest. This varied vegetation establishes the natural habitat of the indigenous fauna where the main animal species are: the wolf (Canis lupus signatus), the wild boar (Sus scrofa), the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), the badger (Meles meles), the wild cat (Felis sylvestris) and the otter (Lutra lutra).

Those fond of trekking have different and well signposted routes such as the ones of Carboeiros, Portocamba and Veiga de Nostre that have different services as a shelter in Servoi and Pepín or classrooms on the nature.



NAture Reserve of the Invernadoiro

Campobecerros is the natural access to this protected space, declared as Nature Reserve of Galicia by the Galician Autonomous Government (Xunta) on the 5th June 1997, due to both the special nature of its ecosystems and the enormous geomorphologic and landscape interest. It takes up a total surface of high mountains with a 5,700 hectares extension made up of the mountains range of St. Mamede, Queixa, Manzaneda and the Fial das Corzas. It is here where the high mountains covered by pastures show their maximum splendor down to the riverbanks where they transfer the prominent role to forests and thickets.

The Támega and Cabras rivers take care of the hydrographical spreading of the Nature Reserve until their waters reach the basins of the Duero and Miño rivers. As far as the geomorphologic point of view is concerned, the most remarkable aspects are the fitted valleys showing the erosive fluvial action. Isolated plains with approximate altitudes of 1000 m are predominant. The ice action during the Quaternary has left geomorphologic marks such as moraines, ice caps, etc.


Due to its inner position, this Nature Reserve has an oceanic climate with a continental nuance. Summers are very mild with temperatures around 15ºC and winters quite cold with minimum temperatures that can go down to –7ºC. Rains are very plentiful (2000 mm/year) and in the valleys we can find a Mediterranean nuance with hotter and drier summers. In both the Portocamba and Campobecerros weather stations a yearly average temperature around 9º C is registered.

This mixed character influences the vegetation on being within the limits of the Eurosiberian and Mediterranean regions. On one hand, the presence of woods with oak (Quercus robur) and white oak (Quercus petraea) that are typical tree-line species belonging to the continental climate. And, on the other hand we also have tree-line species being typical of the Mediterranean climate as a variety of oak named (Quercus pyrenaica), the holly tree (Ilex aquifolium), the yew treeel (Taxus baccata) or the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), in addition to the tree-line species of forest production of which the more predominant is the red pine (Pino radiata). In this nature reserve we can find the most ancient oaks in Galicia whose trunks sometimes exceed 6 meters diameter.

The fauna has here the suitable environment to grow and adapt to it. The wolf (Canis lupus signatus) is the depredator par excellence and submits to a natural growing control the populations of roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and wildboar (Sus scrofa). It is also remarkable the presence of species such as the deer (Cervus elaphus), the badger (Meles meles), the otter (Lutra lutra), the wild cat (Felis sylvestris), the weasel (Mustela nivalis), the hare (Lepus granatensis gallaecius), the partridge (Perdix perdix) and even the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos).