Around the Abbey of Le Relecq in Plounéour-Ménez

Park in the car park between the town hall and the church.

GR de Pays Tour du Pays de Morlaix, marked in yellow and red

(S/E) With your back to the church, walk up the street past the town hall and, at Rue de la Libération, turn left. Follow this street until you reach the stop sign on the D785. Cross with care and take the Route du Relecq (D 111) opposite for about a hundred metres.

(1) Turn right onto a small road and follow it to the hamlet of Guirhoël.

Yellow-marked PR + MTB

(2) On leaving the hamlet, leave the^GRP® on your right and head straight up the path which joins the D111 near a headless cross (Croaz ar Person). Turn right and you will come to a memorial stone commemorating the liberation of Plounéour-Ménez on 6 August 1944.

(3) Leave the D111 and take the stony track that climbs towards the water tower. Go round it to the right and continue until you rejoin the D111, which you follow to the access road to the hamlet of Guillec.

(4) Turn left and follow the small road leading to this hamlet (with its beautiful stone houses). Walk through it to the last house.

(5) At the end of the hamlet, turn left to follow the path through the meadows. Ignore a path on your right and you’ll reach a fork.

(6) Turn right into a wooded area, then through a marshy area, to reach the large hamlet of Mengleuz, which you cross by turning right. The hamlet’s name comes from the Breton ‘mein gleus’ (‘stone in the embankment’). Numerous rocks are visible in this hamlet.

(7) At the southern exit, continue along a series of steep, narrow paths that descend to join the GR®380.

GRP marked yellow and red + mountain biking

(8) Turn left onto the^GRP® and follow the path towards the former Relecq Abbey. At the road, turn left, skirt a pond via a beautiful beech-lined avenue and reach the former Cistercian abbey church (open to visitors, as is its garden). Inside the abbey church, note the quality of the acoustics.

(9) Head towards the stop sign on the D111, cross it carefully and take the path opposite that turns left. Cross a stream and reach a road at a place called Pen ar Quinquis. Follow this road to the right to reach the large hamlet of Quillioguè, which you go round on the right.

(10) On leaving the hamlet, turn right onto a farm track that climbs steadily, first through meadows and fields, then across heathland where it narrows. You’ll reach a path coming from the left just before a power line.

(11) Turn right and continue climbing along the ridge line until you reach a small road that slopes gently downwards. Note an area on your left that was burnt in the summer of 2022, and reach a^GR® junction (cross base).

Yellow-marked PR (in the opposite direction)

(12) Leave the^GRP® and turn right to begin a new climb to the highest point of this hike (340 m). Continue downhill through open heathland. On a well-maintained boardwalk, cross a peat bog that feeds a stream which becomes the Queffleuth, a river that joins the Morlaix river, and arrive at another trail junction where you leave the^{PR® trail.}

GRP marked Yellow and Red + Mountain Bike

(13) Take the hairpin bend to the left onto the^GRP® and begin a new climb due south, still through the same open moorland. Reach a new high point.

(14) Take a sharp right-hand bend onto an old Roman road that descends steadily. At a right-angled bend, leave this old Roman road and turn left onto a path bordered by embankments. You will reach a water catchment area.

(15) Turn right and continue with the water catchment area on your left. Continue to the junction with the outbound route.

(2) Turn left and, following the route in the opposite direction to the outward journey, return to the village of Plounéour-Ménez where you can visit the church and its churchyard near the car park at the start (S/E).

Lovely picnic tables at Le Relecq.
Route inspired by^{the PR®} 21 “mountain route” and the^PR® 22 “abbey walk” in the Armorique Regional Nature Park.

Church and enclosure.
Croaz ar Person.
Former abbey at Le Relecq.
Diry bog.
Landscapes of the Mont d'Arrée moors.