The first reports of human settlement in the Valdés council present territory date of Lower and Middle Paleolithic, specifically the Acheulian cultural period. During this period was established for some time on the Busto Cape one of the most ancient peoples who settled in northern Peninsula. The chosen site was particularly suitable for hunting and gathering, and its inhabitants have left us interesting examples of their everyday stone tools: bifaces, scrapers, cleavers, etc. The site, one of the oldest in Asturias, was discovered by José Manuel González. In 1992 a team led by Professor José Adolfo Rodríguez Asensio began a systematic investigation of the area of Busto Cape, who, in his words, "possibly can provide important data regarding the time of passage between the Lower Paleolithic and Middle Paleolithic". The results of these recent excavations have shown that these places were occupied by humans about 50,000 years in the period between the first two stages Paleolithic. Other evidence, such the Paredes dolmen or the Ovienes “menhir”, suggest that its presence is extended throughout prehistory, continuing forts time -which is supported by the presence of several forts- up to the Roman domination.

As stated Mónica Díaz and María Teresa Costales, “other human groups, probably broken off from the previous [Acheulean], printed his footsteps, evolving through Mousterian of Acheulean tradition, by Caroyas, Bozo beach, or Ribon, traces that survive in the early stages of würmiense glaciations”.

The finding of tools owns of the Asturiense culture on land Cudillero Valdés and confirms the existence in the Asturian Central-Mesolithic population with a diet based mainly on shellfish and seafood. The lithic industry is rough and then very poor, and is characterized by the "peak Asturiense" boot utensil carving quartzite ridges elongated and flattened, as discovered in the rasa of San Martín de Santiago, near to Luarca.

The megalithic burial mounds are located in areas bordering the districts of Cudillero, Salas, Tineo and Villayón, or inland, in La Granda, San Pelayo de Teona, La Ronda, Piedrafita and Villauril. The most notable is the megalithic burial of Xugadoiro (village of Los Corros - Ayones parish), comprising seven burial mounds, some still with orthostatic camera.

Castreña representation is abundant in these places. There are eight forts identified: La Cogocha, in San Miguel de Canero; Peña Castiel, in Luarca; El Castiecho, in Otur; La Porida, in Trevías; El Castiecho, in Barceda (La Montaña), El Castro, in Carcedo, El Castiecho, in Cajós (La Montaña), and El Cerco los Moros, in Paredes. None of them have been, so it isn’t possible to set their foundation. According to J. M. Gonzalez, all set in a "peripheral" area regarding Pésicos -pre-Roman people who lived in the astures’ convent- positions, but he must have some distinctive features that differentiate it from other more specifically astures. M. Díaz and M. T. Costales argues that most of the forts of the interior are related to gold mining in Roman times, while the coastal forts, more simple and small, seem to be linked to the control of the Roman road to Lugo (Lucus Augusti). The ploughshare of Llendecastiello, found in the fort of La Porida, is quite possibly of the Roman period, but tied to pre-Roman forms (Celtiberian).

The Roman colonization, explained largely by the rich gold resources of the region, involved the adhesion of these lands to  Conventus Asturum. This historic step left monumental and epigraphic evidence by the funerary stele of Ovienes, and the tombstone inscription dedicated to Jupiter, discovered in El Rellón of Merás and now missing, that was copied from the original by Rafael Díaz Argüelles in 1830. But his most important legacy is the remains of those mining activities in the Esva basin or Canero: Campo de la Romana and Prado de la Molina —Bustiello de Paredes—;Cadavedo beach — La Ribeirona—; Carcabones de Merás (Paredes); Muñás de Abajo (Carcedo); Trevías; Agüeras, and Longrey, reflected both in alluvium and rock deposits.

It is during the Middle Ages when the Valdés council takes personality, whose toponym comes from the contraction of “valle de Ese” (Esva), the river articulating this space. With this name, lost in 1909 and now happily recovered. It does appear for the first time mentioned in the codex of the Corias Record Book, dated 1038, year when Rodriguez gave to the Oveco Bárcena monastery «unam uillam in Muannes, territorio Ualdes» ( "a villa in Muanna, Valdés territory”). The first written mention to the town of Luarca appears in a document dated 912, but it and a previous one referred to other places of Valdés, are false Pelagians diplomas (Bishop Pelayo).

In the tenth and eleventh centuries the monasteries managed the overall management of a vast territory in only part of their property. The social and religious crisis Asturias suffered after the transfer of the Court in Leon was mitigated by a monastic peak has its climax in the eleventh century also religious boom, which translates into a growing popular fervor to the relics San Salvador de Oviedo and the increase of the pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Oviedo and Santiago de Compostela. In the late Middle Ages, the coastal route of the road was filled with pilgrims who crossed Valdés, a council marked by shelters and hospitals.

"The mainline churches in Valdés with monastic title were San Miguel de Trevías,San Martín de Aguiar or Aya (Villanueva, Trevías) and San Miguel de Canero, what, with other possessions and villas belonging to the two great western monastic centers: San Juan de Corias [council of Cangas del Narcea] and San Miguel de Bárcena [council of Tineo] "(Diaz, M. and Costales M.T.). The first of them began to own property in Valdés in the middle of the XI century and, between 1138 to 1232 -qualified as a phase of consolidation of the domain by García García, E.- , this area is one of the basic areas of Corias heritage, even in the Late Middle Ages.

From the end of XIII century, the nobility and the people disputed and gradually cut ecclesiastical possessions and privileges.

The founding document of the Puebla Valdes was granted by "Alfonso X The Wise" (a key event in the history of the council), in the city of Burgos, on Thursday May 29, 1270. From that date are protected, -by a royal Privileg or rights recognizer- its inhabitants, who, hitherto subject to the law of the strongest, had repeatedly appealed to the King for justice because "they received many evils and wrongs of many knights and squires and other wrongdoers, who robbed them and took them to without their pleasure...», for which they request a place "what we went to were so kind to settle". The place chosen to be settled was in Luarca, the granary of Santiago de Arriba. Territorial limits set in the statutory text of 1270 almost coincide with the current, the only administrative change occurs mid-nineteenth century (Royal Decree of 12/03/1851), when entering the parish council of San Salvador de la Montaña, Hervedosa and Boronas, lopped from the council of Navia.

Luarca, the former fishing village turned into town without surrounding walls, was born with a clear mission administrative and economic centralization of the territory. The Town Charter, attentive to the maritime tradition of the regional head, regulates fishing activities so reserve 'the Puerto de Vallenación and Portazgo de Luzdes and other vessels that come from outside" exonerating the "people of this town and its district of fees of their fishing". Since the founding prerogatives, the port of Luarca comes to achieving great prosperity, becoming the economic engine that puts the town at the head of the council.

Valdés county town provided him a ship to the fleet, commanded by Admiral Bonifaz in 1248, who won Sevilla after going up the Guadalquivir river. In 1338 Luarca was cited above between the ports to the right to import and distribution of salt (storehouse), thanks to the order given by Alfonso IX on 28 April of that year in Burgos. The whaling was not immune to this intense fishing dynamism, naming in the Valdés Town Charter the Port of Vallenación or Vallenarán. Already in late medieval times, fishermen, shipbuilders and Luarca traders formed the Brotherhood of Merchants for the defense of common interests related to maritime activity.

Under the great development of the fishing industry of the XIII century and enjoyed commercial and industrial privileges enjoyed in it (tax exemption on the movement of goods, alfolís, logging rights), Luarca gains in size and importance, to the point of counting in the fourteenth century with a colony Jews or Jewry, in the following centuries the settlement of the town will be significantly increased and subject to change.

Valdes promptly joined to the brotherhood of councils. They got full role in the XIII and XIV centuries, activating municipal politics. These associations, together with Parliament, fought to defend their rights against the desires of domination by the lords in moments of weakness of royal power. In 1277 Valdés participated in the first municipal brotherhood, endorsed in 1277 at the height of La Espina. It borns for mutual defense of the major Western towns: Pravia, Grado, Salas, Somiedo, Valdés, Tineo, Cangas and Allande. In 1315 Ruiz Peláez attend, on behalf of this towns, to the Cortes of Burgos who decided to create the Great Brotherhood of the Kingdom. Valdés council is one of those who agreed in 1367 to support the cause of King Peter against his brother Enrique. The town lost its status as a realengo in 1374. King Henry II had bequeathed it  to his bastard son, the Count Don Alfonso, but in 1395 the town recover its condition again. "One of the latest manifestations of inter-municipal association, that is the Five Villages, the first reference is documented in 1462, voluntarily joined Grado, Pravia, Salas, Valdés and Miranda in a guild that requested the Crown to recognize a legal status and management capacity unit. The Catholic Monarchs left in the hands of the mayor of the Principality the approval of this integration, over one of the parties constituting the future General Meeting of the Principality of Asturias "(Diaz, M. and Alvarez, M.T.).

In the Modern Age (XVI, XVII and XVIII centuries), the jurisdiction of the council of Valdés covered 13 parishes and an annex, with a total of 189 small villages and hamlets places, counting the 42 "brañas vaqueiras", a distinct ethnic group and marginalized socially, occupying part of the municipal highlands, which established their winter villages, their nomadic way of life clashed with the sedentary interior villagers (xaldas) or coastal zone (marnuetos) causing friction with the civil and ecclesiastical authorities.

Minutes of the General Meeting of the Principality for 1594 reflected the adoption of the first judicial division of the province in four games: Llanes, Villaviciosa, Avilés and the Five Councils (Grade, Pravia, Salas, Valdés and Miranda).

To cope successfully with the French sea offensives (in 1542 took place the Fourth War against France) and English offensives (fleets regular or privateers, repeatedly pushed back during the 2nd half of the century) Luarca had to equip themselves properly in these modern times. The result was the artillery fortifications of La Atalaya and La Punta de Castiel. In 1765, proceeds to the renovation of the artillery battery from La Blanca, effective protective of navigation by sea until after the War of Independence. In the course of the conflict against the French invaders (1808-1814), Luarca became, for some time, capital of the province. This moved the Senior Board of Armaments (March 4, 1810) and other military organizations, and this was also the Gallic general Bonet (May 2, 1810), who ended up moving away due to a reorganization of the Napoleon's troops.

Emigration to America was an important phenomenon during the XIX and XX centuries (Modern Times), especially to Cuba and Argentina, which clearly demonstrates the wealth of those who returned there, by the numerous houses of Indians who can be seen in the village and its surroundings. Some of them also left an indelible benefactor mark.

Luarca, whose port had its first dam in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, underwent, in the words of Juan Fernandez Pereiro, a real growth since the end of the century, "when former landowners tend to become in local entrepreneurs investments which will generate a financial network more robust and diversified (banking, transport companies, industries, conservation of fish, metalgraphic)".

The growth leaves its mark on the urban landscape in the early twentieth century, colonizing new neighborhoods (La Carretera de Galicia, Malabrigo).

But the civil war of 1936 came to truncate dramatically the state of progress. Valdes occupation by the national troops came less than a month after "The Rise" (July 18): General Mola entered in Luarca, from Galicia, on August 8, 1936.

After a cruel war, marked by repression and economic decline, the council begins to "stretch" to show signs of recovery since the 50's and 60's. And in local history began to accumulate data and dates for optimism: in 1956 was created the Municipal Broad and the Tourism Office, a clear commitment to a new sector, which is already one of the main pillars of the local economy; in 1962 opens the section Pravia-Luarca of the rail line Ferrol-Gijón, completing it in 1972 with the Luarca-Vegadeo route; in 1969, is the first democratic cooperative of Asturias: the agrarian of Carcedo-Muñás, and the following year, comes up Valdes-SAT, a dairy cooperative-based company, which ended recently sold to Central Lechera Asturiana (CLAS); the birth in 1970 of the National Painting Competition Luarca, today, no doubt, painting and sculpture regional contest most prestigious; the recent improvements in communications, with the inclusion of the N-634 and N-632 in the First National Road Plan, the fourth place reached by the fishing industry catches ...