Anchorage

Brigognan - Caouloc

Shelter: E
Seabed: sand
Anchoring: Allowed

Sand anchorage in the rocky shoreline of Brignogan-Plages on the north coast of Finistère, in the Pays Pagan.

Mooring buoys
Beach

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Delicate approach through a maze of granite outcrops and drying rocks typical of the north Léon coast. Enter by day only, using the local beacons and the Men Marz cross on the shore as a leading mark. Sand bottom between rocky patches, shelter from east winds only, fully open to the dominant NW swell.

Practical

No facilities on the anchorage. Plouescat 3.1 nm to the east for a drying harbour, Poulennou 7.1 nm to the east. Village shops and bakery at Brignogan 700 m inland.

Ashore

The Men Marz menhir standing 8 metres high on the dune marks the western edge of the anchorage, one of the tallest Christianised megaliths in Brittany. GR 34 coastal path runs along the shore to Pontusval lighthouse 1 km east, then on to the Meneham guardhouse village with its granite chaos.

History

The Pays Pagan name comes from the wrecker communities that lived off shipwrecks on this coast until the 19th century. The Pontusval lighthouse, built in 1869 in cut granite, stands only 17 metres high to stay below the cliff line during German occupation sightings.