Site: Plourin

Name:Plourin (Plourin-Leon) CISP No:PLOIN
Place:Plourin (Plourin-Leon) Grid Ref:81.6 2413.2 (FR)   Map
Parish:Plourin (Plourin-Leon) Stones:3
County:Finistère (Penn-ar-Bed) , France Saint(s):Budoc
Site Type:ecclesiastical

Site Notes

Davies et al/2000, 126, `The bourg of Plourin lies 5km north of Lanrivoaré in the far north west of Brittany, 5km from the coast, at 70m above sea level. The bedrock is granite. It is located on a slight hill, surrounded by good, mixed farm land. The church and churchyard are the focus of the settlement now, as they were at the time of the cadastral plan of 1845 (ADF 3P Plourin section G1).

Plourin was certainly the centre of a plebs (an early medieval social unit) and was an early parish; a case has also been made that it was the centre of a large `primitive parish' of the very early middle ages. The present church is said to have replaced a romanesque church in the 19th century and the churchyard stands at least 2m above the surrounding ground level, indicating long use. Hence, for all the above reasons, there is a good case for suggesting that this is the site of an early medieval religious enclosure, in use by at least the 10th and 11th centuries and quite possibly as much as four or five centuries earlier. At the same time it would have been the social focus of an agricultural community'.

References

Stones