Pinus pinaster bark, an abundant by-product from the timber industry, has been studied as a potential low-cost adsorbent for the removal of Congo red (CR) dye from wastewaters. Surface morphological and physico-chemical characteristics of pine bark were analysed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), determination of the point of zero charge (pH_PZC) and elemental analysis. Assays were performed to determine the wavelength for the maximum absorbance and the stability with time of CR solutions depending on concentration and/or pH, which resulted to be a very significant parameter. Adsorption studies were conducted on batch mode to study the effect of contact time (till 7 days), pH (2–9), adsorbent dosage (1–10 g L⁻¹) and temperature (25–60 °C). The bark adsorption capacity at equilibrium varied between 0.3 and 1.6 mg g⁻¹ and the equilibrium adsorption percentage between 23.4 and 100% depending on adsorbent dosage, temperature and pH at an initial CR concentration of 5 mg L⁻¹. Kinetic data for the removal of CR by pine bark were best fitted by the pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The equilibrium data fitted well with the Freundlich model. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that the adsorption process is exothermic and spontaneous.