Site: Landunvez

Name:Landunvez CISP No:LDVEZ
Place:Argenton Grid Ref:78.9 2416.1 (FR)   Map
Parish:Landunvez Stones:1
County:Finistère (Penn-ar-Bed) , France Saint(s):Gonvel
Site Type:ecclesiastical

Site Notes

Davies et al/2000, 110--112, `The chapel of St Gonvel lies at about 20m above sea level in the far north west of Brittany, a couple of hundred metres from the coast and 2.5km from the parish centre of Landunvez. The bedrock is granite. The site is sheltered, lying in a slight depression 100m to the east of a megalithic grave, which occupies a more prominent position on the coast. At the time of the cadastral survey of 1844 the chapel was isolated and remote from settlement, although nowadays it is surrounded by housing and in particular by holiday homes (ADF 3P Landunvez, section F1).

The chapel, which was once larger, now lies in a sub-circular enclosure, as it did in 1844. Since the enclosure is of the same build as numerous other banks in the immediate neighbourhood, and these banks relate clearly to modern residential boundaries, it is unlikely to be early in its present form. However, there may have been other, early, structures nearby, given surface traces within the enclosure, and the chapel includes at least one re-used carved stone built into the base of the east wall.

Castel noted three crosses ... but one small cross now stands within the enclosure, about 10m to the south of the chapel, mounted on a disproportionately large multi-tiered base (Castel/1980, 138--139); similarly large bases are known elsewhere, as at St Buryan in Cornwall. The 1844 map shows a cross in the same position, which may mark the spot occupied by the inscribed stone in the 17th century'.

References

Stones