La Arnía Beach and the Costa Quebrada Cliffs

La Arnía is a cove of about 500 metres between cliffs of great geological interest: along its edge you can see marls and marly limestones full of fossils, and from it, the abrasion platform that runs from Soto de la Marina to the Liencres dunes. It is the image of Costa Quebrada, the twenty kilometres of broken coast between Liencres and La Magdalena.

What you see

A platform of flat rock that the sea has gradually cut, which is exposed at low tide, and in front of it the islets that give this coast its profile. The law that in 2021 extended the natural park to include Costa Quebrada protects precisely its coastal elevations, abrasion platforms, beaches, cliffs, tombolos and islets, among them the Urros de Liencres, the isla de Los Conejos and the isla del Castro. In April 2025 UNESCO declared Costa Quebrada a Global Geopark, the first in Cantabria. This coast already drew attention in the nineteenth century: the landscape painter Carlos de Haes painted in 1872 his picture Costa cántabra between the beaches of La Arnía and Liencres.

The neighbouring coves

Towards Liencres, Portio, a small beach of about 300 metres protected by large rocks, some out of the water, with no facilities at all. Beyond it, Somocuevas, about 100 metres long, protected by a rocky headland, nudist and with few people, with no services. Cerrias lies between them.

Tides and safety

Go down at low tide and in footwear with good grip: the rocks are slippery and, with a swell, the waves reach the platform without warning. Check the tide table before you go. Do not go near the edge of the cliff. The town council's listing records access and parking, but not lifeguards: if you swim, do so with a calm sea and without going far out. The beach is about 500 metres long and about 48 wide.

With children

At low tide, the pools on the platform are a good place to look for life among the rocks, always hand in hand and away from the water's edge. The fossils in the marls are to be looked at, not pulled out: it is a protected area.

Getting there

Liencres is reached from exit 7 of the A-67, in the direction of Santander, along the CA-203, or from exit 9, towards Boo, along the CA-231. From the village, the road towards Somocuevas leads to the coves.

How to combine it

Above Portio is the Posada La Venta del Mar, with all its rooms facing the sea. For a coffee or a meal with views of the coves, the restaurant at the Hotel Calas de Liencres. If you want to see the park's other landscape, that of the dunes and the pine forest, continue to the walk through the Liencres dunes.