Back to home pageFrench    German    Spanish    



The steles of the golf road


(Municipality of Plouarzel)





Access :    Coming from St-Renan by the D5 (direction Plouarzel), just before the shopping centre of Plouarzel, turn right towards Lampaul-Plouarzel and take the first road on the right towards St-Eloi. The first stele is on the left, on the side of the road.
Coming from Le Conquet, cross the village of Plouarzel and in front of the church take the direction of St-Renan. Turn left after the shopping centre and then right towards St-Eloi. The first stele is on the left of the road.


The stele of Kerabars:

GPS : 48°26'22.9 N  4°43'03.7 W





  This small monument surprises by its position in the immediate vicinity of the road. It was not at this location in 1989 when Marie-Yvane Daire and Pierre-Roland Giot carried out their inventory : they report it to the place called Kerabars, a nearby farm located about 200 m away. Another example of the mobility of these granite stones that look like bollards.



   However, it is a classic Gallic stele, made of a truncated quadrangular pyramid, whose edges have been chipped over a width of 7 to 8 cm. A very long exposure to the weather has eroded its areas and favoured the development of a few black lichens on its faces. Its height above ground reaches 1.20 m, but it was probably pushed too deep when it was moved because it was once assigned a height of 1.35 m. Its sides have uneven dimensions: from 43 to 54 cm at ground level and from 33 to 42 cm at the top.



The top of the stone shows a slight depression perhaps due to the use of this surface over the centuries as a working base. However, it does not seem that the stele has been Christianized. The side facing the road has only a small excavation in its centre, which could be not a cavity, but simply the trace of a shock.


Drawing by Etienne MOREL, 1926

The two steles of Kerhoaden :

GPS : 48°26'45.3 N   4°43'10.6 W



Access : You have to drive another 300 m in the same direction to discover the Christianized steles on the right, at the next crossroads leading to the entrance to the golf course.



These two crosses, which seem to be twin, are in fact placed on Gallic steles of a different appearance.



Larger, more massive than the one on the left, the stele on the right is a truncated quadrangular pyramid made of grey granite with a height of 0.85 m. Its base is a 73 x 58 cm rectangle.
The stele on the left, thinner, is also a truncated quadrangular pyramid. It was carved from the pink feldspar crystal granite of the Aber Ildut and has a cut edge at the front left. Its height above ground is 0.87m but it is marked as having been lowered deeper so that the two crosses reach the same height. At ground level, its section is a rectangle measuring 60 x 52 cm.


Drawing by Etienne MOREL, 1926

Major Etienne MOREL's drawings are extracted from
"Les stèles de l'âge du fer dans le Léon",
( Marie-Yvane DAIRE & Pierre-Roland GIOT, Rennes, 1989 )


***

QR code of this page:


Download this flashcode