Logbook · 10 places

Island of Cortegada

Vilagarcía de Arousa, Salnés, Pontevedra

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 5 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Curiosities

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Island of Cortegada

Nature · Vilagarcía de Arousa, Salnés, Pontevedra

The island of Cortegada, covering 54 hectares, lies in the Arousa estuary, near the mouth of the river Ulla and facing the coast of Carril, within the municipality of Vilagarcía de Arousa; it is the largest in the Cortegada archipelago, which also includes the Malveiras or Briñas islands, and forms part of the Atlantic Islands National Park. It is almost a tidal island: at low tide it joins the mainland via the fish farms and can be crossed on foot. It has a few beaches and two small hills a little over twenty metres high, covered in abundant vegetation, among which stands out the largest laurel forest on the Iberian Peninsula, along with pine woods and other species. The island was ceded to Alfonso XIII in 1910, was incorporated into the national park in 2002 and returned to public hands in 2007.

Photo: Pavlemadrid commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

What to see and do in Vilagarcía de Arousa