Kerpert

Walk of the Month

February 2007

Kerpert

Kerpert is in Côtes d’Armor, on the D28 about mid-way between Callac and Quintin

9kms 3½Hrs

Start at the mairie in Kerpert

1. Go down the track ahead and at the fork follow the track to the right marked ‘Fontaines’. The track, which is excellent for blackberries, descends gently at first then more steeply through woodland as it rounds a bend and arrives at a junction. Follow the track to the left ignoring the path marked ‘Circuit de l’Abbaye’ and continue over the Trieux which, though no more than an unimpressive stream, has carved out a wide bed of marsh and meadowland at this base of the valley. The track mounts gently, sloping fields now interspersing between it and the river, up to a road.

2. Turn right and after a hundred metres turn right again in front of a stone cross planted with lavender. Pass the old bread oven on your left and the farm of Kergolou on your right and continue down the main trackway keeping the group of modern barns on your left. At a fork junction, take the track to the right and descend into the valley and onto the tree-lined path straight ahead continuing down through the woods. In autumn keep a look out for the large variety of fungi that can be found in these parts. The path mounts again past a tumble-down building and a little path and continues, with fields to either side, into further woodland giving welcome shade in summer. Then it turns right onto a track and descends to a road.

3. Turn left and, passing a house on your right, leave the road for the track that runs beside a silver Christ on a stone cross. Descend the track through woodland and pass a small house on your left continuing on the verdant trackway over a stream and up to a group of houses where the grass of the track gives way to tarmac.

4. At the road junction, turn left in the little hamlet of Coldesquient and continue for five hundred metres to a track on the right marked with the signs of three different paths (blue, yellow and the red and white of the GR). The track leads through open countryside and descends through beech woods with a view of a wooded valley to the right then turns to the left onto a track where it climbs again out of the woods and up to a ridge with long views on either side. To the left the dome of St-Gilles can be seen among the trees and, closer, the spire of Kerpert.

Before the hamlet of St-Urnan turn right onto a little path with a well-hidden yellow marker. Pass a couple of wooden home-made houses and their goats and descend the path through woodland of ancient beeches and pines, through splendid arches of holly and over a tiny stream at the bottom of the valley. Keep on the path as it mounts again through a field towards a farm on the right and arrives at a road.

5. Turn left and continue 50m, then take the track to the right which forks almost immediately. Take the left fork and cross high open country before descending into the woods where the track narrows to become a path (shared at times with running rain water). Arriving at the marsh below, cross the stream, pass the barns on your left and, at the stone cross, turn left on to the road. Follow the road over another stream

and uphill past the interesting but sadly neglected fountain of Notre Dame with its equally neglected lavoir on your left and arrive at the attractive sixteenth century church of Kerpert, well worth a visit. To return to the mairie, continue to the junction and turn left.

from Central Brittany Coast to Coast

Red Dog Books 2006