After the 1950s, there was a concern to complete the lighting and beaconing of the Galician coastline, signaling all ports and estuaries that could serve as a shelter for boats in the event of a storm. The advanced position of Coelleira with respect to the estuary of Viveiro and O Barqueiro give an ideal location for a minor order lighthouse that facilitates the entrance in both ports once dubbed Estaca de Bares. The project was commissioned to Marcelo Sánchez Movellán in the year 1861 that gave the same construction solution as for the lighthouse of San Cibrao. Before the possibility of isolation in the event of a storm, a cistern was used to collect the rainwater as well as an oven and shed for firewood.
The lighthouse was lit on May 30, 1864 with a range of 9 miles. After several changes in the lighting system in December 1917 is endowed with an acetylene lamp especially indicated for the islands and with a range of 11 miles suppressing the service of the torreros. At the present time this electrified, working aided of solar plates with a scope of 8 miles.
Curiosities, stories, myths and legends
Four are the Cantábricas Islands that share cartel for to settle in its ground a monastery dedicated to San Miguel Arcángel: Mount Saint Michael in Normandy (France); Skelling Michael in Ireland; Island of St. Montaje Michael in Cornwall (United Kingdom) and Island Coelleira in Lugo (Galicia).
Coelleira Island is the largest of the Cantabrian Islands of Galicia. In its day was constructed in her a monastery dedicated to San Miguel: San Miguel of Quolicularia. Characterized by the austerity, the monks that inhabited it moved to say mass of Viveiro villaje in boats of leather. Later it is said that the Templars occupied the place. Already uninhabited, today is of ornithological interest because it shelters in her more than 25 different types of birds with more than 15,000 nests census.
