La Vieille ("The Old Lady" or "The Wrass") is a lighthouse in the département of Finistère at the commune of Plogoff, on the northwest coast of France.

It is among the small class of lighthouses around the coasts of France carrying the moniker "hell", due to a remote position in rough seas.

[3] The light is occulting, with a range of 18 nautical miles (33 km); a foghorn was installed in the early twentieth century.

La Vieille achieved notoriety in the 1920s when two disabled war veterans were stranded there for weeks by storms, their health deteriorating.

In 1995 it was the penultimate French lighthouse to become automated, a process delayed due to the keepers on-site staging a protest against the task being carried out.

The project resumed ten years later, but the Service des Phares (Lighthouse Service) director was forced to admit on 1 June 1872 that "construction of a lighthouse on La Vieille will be postponed for the foreseeable future, and the difficulties encountered in embarking on the rock could even see it abandoned altogether".

In the meantime the lanterns of nearby Phare de Tévennec and the Île-de-Sein light partially compensated for the continuing lack of a lighthouse.

Six cubic metres of stonework were built for the base, with the help of stonemasons who had already worked on the lighthouse of Ar Men.

Mooring rings and securing bars were implanted, which acted as a solid base that could subsequently be used as a landing platform for building materials.

The Minister of Public Works, Sadi Carnot, issued a statement on 29 January 1881 that "from information gathered and results obtained during the 1879–80 initiatives, it is clear we can establish a lighthouse on the rock of Vieille, with the amount to be spent in alignment with the services required."

Firm commitment by the Minister of Public Works to construction of the lighthouse finally came on 29 January 1881, after two years of assessment.

Each year on the first of May, workmen would arrive at the island in a small steam-powered boat towing a longboat laden with construction materials, as well as rowboats for landing.

The steamer anchored at nearby Cap Sizun stood ready to intervene at the slightest signal if the spring tides rose too high.

The stonework was reinforced with Portland cement from Boulogne mixed with seawater for the base, but with freshwater for the rest of the building.

The architecture of La Vieille was designed to be aesthetically pleasing, yet sufficiently distinct to minimise confusion with the nearby tower Tévennec.

Nöel Fouquet, Jean Donnart, Michel and Guy Rozenn Lasbleiz spent their last night on the lighthouse before its automation on 14 November 1995.

In protest against the decision, Jean Donnart and one of his colleagues had refused a previous departure, which explains the presence of four keepers in the lighthouse during its decommission instead of two.

Fuel deliveries were brought by two tenders the Blodwen and Velléda, both under the control of the Phares et Balises du Finistère.

[6][7] Rotation at La Vielle always took place the same way: The vedette approaches as close to the rocks as possible, amid the roar and swell of the waves.

Once the passenger had secured his safety belt, he sat down with his luggage astride a kind of large ball that slid up or down the rope.

Once on the deck, he passes his lifejacket to his counterpart and helps steer the comings and goings to ensure his colleague's safe descent, followed by the transfer of supplies.

These jobs, supposed to be less arduous than average, included usher, office worker, policeman, postman, and lighthouse keeper.

Both had suffered a punctured lung; the first had muscles in his right arm severed, while the second had shrapnel that surgeons were unable to remove from his body and that might occasionally travel.

Despite the courage of its crew, the relief vessel was unable to get close enough to La Vieille: the buoy tender Léon Bourdelles was engulfed with all its occupants.

A contemporary newspaper reported "Courageously, despite the sea conditions, the tender Clet Coquet returned Sunday afternoon to the lighthouse, taking with it the chief keeper Kerninon's own son who has agreed to replace one of the Corsicans".

A team of young sailors from Brittany, swimming through the glacial sea, clinging to ropes, finally managed to put foot on the island and return through the same route, with the two wretched survivors both "black as demons and literally in shreds".