Pointe de Pen-Hir

The Pointe de Pen-Hir is a headland at the western end of the Crozon peninsula in Finistère, close to the small port of Camaret-sur-Mer, and it is one of the most dramatic stretches of coast in Brittany. The old listing places it near Perros-Guirec, which is on the north coast of Brittany and far from here; the real location is on the Atlantic edge of the peninsula, at the mouth of the roadstead of Brest. The name comes from the Breton words for head and long, which describes the shape of the cape well.

The cliffs here drop about seventy metres to the sea, in layers of dark rock that have been cut and folded by geological forces over hundreds of millions of years. Waves break constantly at the foot, and on a clear day the views take in a wide arc of the Atlantic, with the headlands of the Crozon peninsula and the entrance to the roadstead of Brest in the north. Just offshore, a group of rock stacks known as the Tas de Pois, the Heap of Peas, rise from the water. They are a nature reserve and a nesting site for seabirds, including gannets, shags and fulmars, and they can be seen from the cliff top, particularly with binoculars.

The headland carries traces of the twentieth century. A large memorial in the form of a Cross of Lorraine, set up in the 1960s, commemorates the Bretons who joined Free France in the Second World War. Concrete German bunkers, left from the Atlantic Wall, are still there, and remind visitors that this coast was a military zone during the occupation. Close to the point, the stone alignments of Lagatjar, a field of megaliths from several thousand years ago, are a short walk or drive away.

The cape is open to everyone and free, and the paths are on open heath of gorse and heather, with turf that is cut by the sea air. A circular walk along the cliff tops gives the best views. The coastal path, the GR34, passes through here, and the walk to the nearby cove and beach can be done in an hour or two. Keep to the marked paths, stay well back from the edge, which is unfenced in places and subject to erosion, and take a windproof layer, since the wind can be strong in every season. The best light is at the end of the day, when the sun sinks into the sea.

The nearby town of Camaret-sur-Mer has a fishing harbour, a stone tower built by Vauban and a chapel of the sailors, and the larger Crozon peninsula has beaches, forts and walks. The headland suits walkers, photographers and anyone who enjoys wild coastal scenery.