Situated on the via Turonensis, an ancient road between Landes and Pyrénées, Sorde l'Abbaye was visited from the Upper Paleolithic and experienced a revival in the Middle Ages as a result of pilgrimage to Compostella.
The site of Barat-de-Vin (in Gascon, "barat de bi") not far from the village, has been a thoroughfare for at least two thousand years, and was inhabited by ancient man who would have been attracted by the fertility of the Adour river valley.