Archelon, a restored 17th-century stone house, Ruiloba

A Restored 17th-Century Stone House in Ruiloba, Cantabria

Archelon is a traditional stone house on the western coast of Cantabria, in the village of Ruiloba, five minutes from Comillas. It sleeps six across three bedrooms and has been restored end to end, though you wouldn’t always know it. The house wears its age proudly, and its clearest inheritance is the original stone crest, cut in the 17th century and left exactly where the masons set it. When its owners took the building on, they worked around it. The home is named after Archelon, the prehistoric sea turtle, chosen for what it suggests about longevity, shelter, and time slowing down. And an instinct for anticipating guest needs before arrival (close to the Japanese principle of omotenashi) dictated the whole restoration.

Inside, interior designer Cristina García Conde set warm, natural materials against the old walls and kept the rooms well proportioned and free of clutter. The care is easiest to read in tactile objects: 600-thread-count Egyptian cotton bedding and heavy towels (all woven in Portugal), deep mattresses, and a well equipped kitchen. A fireplace warms the living room on a cool evening.

Outside, a private garden offers a barbecue and a table long enough for an unhurried lunch, with the green Cantabrian hills rolling toward a coast you can’t quite see. The pleasure here is the bed you sleep well in, the coffee already waiting, the quiet of a village that keeps to itself.

Layout

This vacation home for rent in Ruiloba sleeps up to six guests. The house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, both with showers, set around a living room with a fireplace and an open kitchen and dining area that gives onto the garden. All three bedrooms are laid out with twin beds, which makes the arrangement well suited to families and to friends traveling together.

• Bedroom 1: 2 twins

• Bedroom 2: 2 twins

• Bedroom 3: 2 twins

• Two bathrooms, both with showers

Experiences

On arrival, the owners share a guide to the area's restaurants, bakeries, markets, and beaches.

Good to know

The house sits in the countryside of Barrio Sierra, so a car is the easiest way to get around. The nearest beaches, at Luaña and Comillas, are about 10 minutes away. There is heating and a fireplace but no air conditioning, which the mild northern climate rarely calls for. The home is no-smoking and is looked after by a local management team on hand throughout the stay.

Amenities & services

Free WiFi, heating, fireplace, flat-screen TV, fully equipped kitchen (oven, stovetop, refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, toaster, coffee machine, electric kettle, kitchenware, dining table), washing machine, iron and ironing facilities, drying rack, clothes rack, hairdryer, Egyptian cotton linens and towels, private entrance, private garden, barbecue, outdoor dining area, terrace, balcony, patio, seating area, fan, tile and marble floors, Be Termal bath amenities, welcome provisions (local honey, Cantabrian sobaos, Supracafé coffee)

Around

Ruiloba spreads across eight small hamlets on Cantabria’s western coast, hemmed by cliffs to the west and low mountains inland, in the damp, mild air that keeps this corner of Spain green. It has no beach of its own but is close to two: Luaña, a quiet 400-meter curve of golden sand between cliffs and pine that flies a Blue Flag, and the longer beach at Comillas, each about 10 minutes off. Comillas itself is five minutes away, a modernist showpiece of a town whose old center holds 19th-century mansions, the neo-Gothic Sobrellano Palace, a hilltop pontifical university, and the young Gaudí’s playful El Capricho. Farther out are the Oyambre nature reserve, the medieval lanes of Santillana del Mar, and the Paleolithic bison of the Altamira caves, each within about 20 minutes. Santander lies roughly 50 minutes east.