Ruins of a tower between Hontanas and Castrojeriz

[Bert45]

Can you tell me anything about the structure in my photograph? What was it part of, when was it built? that sort of thing. Thanks.

 

[J Willhaus]

In the Brierly guidebook it intimates that it is part of the ruins of a mill. Another source says the ruins were from Molino de Cubo and part of the village of San Miguel.

 

[Pilgrim9]

The mysterious tower is at
(42.3108327, -4.0686831)

In my overstimulated imagination, it was attached to a rural residence, and the little porthole near the top enabled the country folk who lived there to sit inside and keep an eye on the doings of the big city folk in Hontanas, without themselves being seen.

 

[Bert45]

Hmm. A village called San Miguel? I'd expect more ruins. A mill? I'm ruling nothing out. I wish (just a bit) that I'd walked the 'real' camino from Hontanas to Castrojeriz, rather than taking the easy route along the smooth, level, tarmac road. [Don't condemn me! I walked the real, i.e. signposted, camino in 2003, but I was using film in those days, and probably felt I could not spare a frame for that structure.] I could have had a closer look at the tower. Is it a tower, even? It seems too small in width (both ways) to have a staircase within it. It cannot be a water mill, as there is no stream nearby. Windmills are not common round there – at least, I've never seen one.

 

[Kathar1na]

Erm ... everybody can see that that's not the ruins of a mill in the photo, whether water or wind driven.

Brierley merely writes that the path takes you past the ruins of an old mill and the ruins of an abandoned (medieval) village called San Miguel. He does not say whether he saw either of them and how close they are together but he probably noticed what's left of the church tower. Who doesn't? The website of the town of Hontanas has photos of both ruins - the mill and the tower.