Think of the Iberian peninsula, and you’ll have quick visions of Portugal’s fado and tile-fronted buildings, and Spain’s bulls and matadors.

Yet there’s a corner of the peninsula that’s more James Joyce than Miguel de Cervantes. Portugal’s northernmost region and Spain’s northwestern corner are lands united by a landscape that’s perpetually green, and a common culture that can be traced back to Celtic tribes who inhabited the area until the beginning of the Christian era.

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To celebrate this shared heritage, Comboios de Portugal (Portugal’s national train service, known as CP) and Renfe (Spain’s equivalent) have joined forces on the Linha Celta/Tren Celta, a train line that links Porto, in Portugal, and Vigo, in Spain. Allured, I hopped on board, extending my itinerary all the way to A Coruña, close to Iberia’s northernmost point. Along the way, I stopped in at places that express this region’s fascinating shared Celtic heritage.

Streetscapes of Viana © Austin Bush

Porto–Viana do Castelo

My journey starts at 8:13am at Porto’s Campanhã Station on a three-carriage CP commuter train. It’s bound for Vigo, just across the border in Spain – but I’m hopping off at Viana do Castelo, a provincial Portuguese city with outsized charm and some intriguing traces of Celtic culture.  

An hour north of Porto, the landscape fools me into thinking I’m in Ireland: it’s emerald green and misty, with granite villas more common than tile-fronted houses. At certain points I see people walking along the train tracks: pilgrims en route to Santiago de…

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