Visit / History of the castle

The site has always been inhabited

At first, it was inhabited by a prehistoric camp, of which several traces and objects were extracted before the war by the Brittany Archeological Society.

Then, it was followed by the Roman camp built to invade Great Britain..

During the ninth and tenth centuries the arrival of the Normans provoked terrible wars and the site was severely damaged..

The first manor was built in 1010.

Knowing that the peninsula of south Finistere was uninhabited and subjected to invasions, the duke of Brittany gave it to one of his “ Guilguiffin” knights whom he raised to the rank of baron. He had the mission of protecting it on the west side and of exploiting its lands.

In 1250, it was reinforced with walls and towers around a vast courtyard in order to enable the people from the neighborhood as well as their animals to be welcomed; indeed, those people were frequently invaded by all sorts of sailors.

For that sake, he chose Architect Nicolas Pohic who had travelled to the West Indies and China, and to whom the Auhoroties asked to insist on his orientalism.

The ornamental and concentric pillars surrounding it were symbolic of it; they were inspired by the West Indies because of their shape and because of their Anghor-Vat disposition.

The property was transmitted five times by women from family to family : “Guilguiffin – Ty Varlen – Ploeuc – Saint Luc – Foy – Davy “

A” funny” story happened at the beginning of the XIXth century when Count de Saint Luc lived there; at the time when it happened, he was in his fifties. One evening, as he was walking up the main staircase, the count passed his wife on the first floorlanding. The latter asked him to come and carry out his conjugal duty… which the count refused. Voices rose, preceding a fight which brought Monsieur de Saint Luc to throw his “old owl” ( as he used to call her ) out of the window.

After many fears and some fractures, there was a trial at Quimper tribunal, and in the bargain, scandal cost a lot of money to the count.

The restoration that followed was heavy, as everything had to be rebuilt : the framework, roofs, outdoors and indoors.

The restoration of the castle is nearly finished today, but there still remains the restoration of the outhouses and the building of the chapel which had been stopped after the 1987 storm.