Huelgoat (; meaning "High Forest") is a
commune in the
Finistère department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
of
Brittany in northwestern
France.
Population
Inhabitants of Huelgoat are called in French ''Huelgoatains''.
Geography
Huelgoat is popular with tourists and holidaymakers due to its impressive natural setting among the vestiges of the ancient forest that once covered inland Brittany. Once part of royal and
ducal lands, the forest is now overseen by the French forestry commission, the
National Forests Office. It has an area of 10 square kilometres. A large replanting scheme has repaired much of the damage sustained by the forest in storms on the 15–16 October 1987, when 3.1 square kilometres of trees were levelled or damaged.
The village lies on a lake created between the 16th and 18th centuries to supply water to local silver-lead mines by means of a
leat or ''canal''.
Sights
A number of
geological and
prehistoric
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...
curiosities can be found by following trails in and around the village and forest. Among these are:
* ''Le Chaos de Rochers'', the Chaos of Rocks, is a jumble of hundreds of large
boulders below the dammed lake, into which the river vanishes. A 10 m descent down ladders is required to see it again, running rapidly below a dark cave called the Devil's Grotto.
* ''La Roche Tremblante'' or Trembling Rock, is a 137-tonne boulder nearby, pivoted so it can be made to rock by a person pushing against one point.
* ''Le Champignon'', or The Mushroom, is a large rock balanced on a smaller one to give the eponymous appearance.
* ''La Mare aux Fées'', the fairies' pool.
* ''La Mare aux Sangliers'', the wild
boar pool.
* ''Le Camp d'Artus'', Arthur's Camp, a sea
promontory
A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the so ...
hillfort based on a
Gaulish oppidum, with a linear ''
murus gallicus''
rampart. It was used as refuge by the
Osismii Gauls against the
Roman invasion in 57 BC and later acquired a nickname referring to
Arthurian legend. The site was excavated by
Sir Mortimer Wheeler.
* ''La Grotte d'Artus'', or Arthur's Cave, is a natural shelter formed under a roof of jammed rocks.
The
Poërop Arboretum is a local
arboretum
An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...
with a nationally recognized collection of
maple trees, among other substantial collections.
See also
*
Communes of the Finistère department
*
Parc naturel régional d'Armorique
*
References
External links
Office National des Forêts
A Huelgoat website
*
* https://www.flickr.com/groups/1813771@N21/pool/ Huelgoat group pool] on
Flickr
Communes of Finistère
Osismii
{{Finistère-geo-stub
