Broceliande Forest

The forest around Paimpont has been identified with the Broceliande of Arthurian romance since medieval writers placed Merlin's story here, and the local landscape carries the names to match: the Val sans Retour where Morgan le Fay is said to have trapped unfaithful lovers, the Fontaine de Barenton whose water was believed to raise storms, a megalithic tomb called Merlin's Tomb, and the lake of Comper where Viviane supposedly raised Lancelot. None of it is archaeologically Arthurian; the sites are prehistoric, natural or nineteenth-century attributions. The forest itself is a real remnant of ancient woodland with heath, ponds and a golden tree sculpture set up after a fire in 1990.

History

In the 15th century the forest was called Brocélien, in Breton Brec'Helean, and it was logged again and again for the building needs of Rennes, until its importance brought it under royal jurisdiction. From the 16th century to the end of the 19th the Forges of Paimpont, the largest charcoal-fired ironworks in Brittany, fed on its wood and on iron ore dug at Gelée, and when protection lapsed at the Revolution the forest was cleared so heavily that in 1804 the prefect feared its complete destruction. In 1875 the shipowner Louis Levesque bought it from the Count of Paris and made it a hunting estate, with local use limited to licences under private rangers. The forest has suffered many fires: in September 1990 one burned 450 hectares for five days, much of it in the Val sans Retour, after which thousands of volunteers planted more than half a million trees in 1991-1992, and others struck in 1976, when a thousand hectares burned, and in August 2022 (Wikipedia, Paimpont forest).

The main sights

• The Val sans Retour - a rocky valley of legend with the Golden Tree.
• The Fontaine de Barenton - the spring said to summon storms.
• Merlin's Tomb - a megalithic slab given the name in the 1800s.
• Comper lake and castle - an Arthurian legend centre by the water.

When to go

April to October; autumn colour is good and summer weekends are busy at the Val sans Retour. Paths are muddy in winter. Guided legend walks run in season.

Before you go

The Arthurian sites are attributions rather than archaeology, and some are simply a stone or a spring in woodland. Parking at the Val sans Retour fills early. Signage between sites is thin without a map.

Nearby

Rennes lies east; Josselin is southwest.

Key facts