There are no references to date with certainty the first human settlements in Somiedo, but the lack of traces in the Paleolithic make the specialists think that these first settlements took place during the Neolithic. From then on, Somiedo has received the influence of different cultures. For instance, remains from burial mounds tell us about the Bronze Age; the so called “Real Camin de La Mesa” (The Royal Road of La Mesa”) is a reminder of Roman presence; the Romanesque elements in the church of Santa Maria in Gua testify the influence of the Roman Catholic Church during the Middle Age.

In the past the work of the land was very important, being Somiedo a sustenance economy, but the main activity today is cattle farming. The county is one of the most important reserves of a specific bovine breed, the “Asturian of the valleys” or “Vaca roxa”, for meat production.

Somiedo has an extensive farming model, based on the mixed use of private and collective lands. The system consists on a cyclical movement of the cattle between the private owned lands beside the village in winter, the high altitude summer pastures and the “Brañas”, where the cattle stays in autumn awaiting to be stabled in the village during the winter until the following spring.

This general model has other two different alternative systems, today less and less common and nearly about to disappear. The "Vaqueiros de Alzada” on the one hand, and on the other hand the transhumant merino flocks coming from the Castilian plateau.