Broceliande Forest: Megalithic Trails

Three days of hiking in the forest of Paimpont, focused on the megaliths rather than on legend alone. The route starts at Paimpont and its lakeside abbey, reaches the fountain of Barenton, enters the Val sans Retour by the ridge path that gives the best views over the valley, then Merlin's tomb, slabs of red schist from a Neolithic site reinterpreted in the nineteenth century, and finally the Hotie de Viviane, a genuine megalithic gallery grave set on a rocky outcrop. This is a forest of heath, beech and purple schist. The Val sans Retour paths are very busy at weekends: come midweek or early. The megaliths are fragile and sometimes damaged by visitors, so stay on the marked trails.