In the Steïr valley

The hamlet of Seznec, on the Quimper-Plogonnec road (D39), where the chapel is located.

^GR®®38markings: White and Red

(S/E) Follow the sign for a return trip to the chapel. With your back to the car park, take the small road that joins the D39 and follow it for about a hundred metres until you reach the first road on the left. You will arrive at the Route de Keroliver (sign for Domaine de Kerolivier)

(1) Leave this road on your left – you’ll return via it later – and continue towards Kerroz and Trogour. Pass the greenhouses on your right, then the hamlet of Kerroz.

(2) Pass the Trogour sign and, at the last house on the left, take a discreet hairpin bend path that descends into the woods. Follow it in a south-westerly direction. The path is no longer always very clear. It leads to a stony farm track which you follow to the left. At the road leading to a poultry farm, turn left and head back up to the next junction. Turn right towards the hamlet of Trogour Huella.

(3) At the ‘No motorbikes or horses’ sign, turn onto an ascending track which quickly enters the woods and begins a descent towards the banks of the River Steïr. Note a bridge on the right supporting the railway line. Stay on the descending track and reach the river. Follow it along the right bank to reach the Trogour Waterfall. A large fallen poplar (June 2020) is blocking part of the stream flowing from the waterfall, and the small footbridge is no longer in use, making the crossing more difficult. Continue upstream along the river until you reach another railway bridge. Shortly afterwards, the path moves away from the river and skirts a vast meadow at the bottom of the valley.

(4) Take a wide, stony farm track which climbs quite steeply at first but then levels out to reach the plateau. On the right, a view of the railway line continuing. Reach the end of the track, which is gravelled, near the first houses

(5) Turn right and follow this small road lined with wooded areas until you reach a car park with large light-green sheds and a large yellow house on the left (a beautiful private lake on the right). Continue along this road lined with rhododendrons. The tarmac ends and gives way to a wide, carriageable track that descends gradually into the Steïr valley, forming a wide circular loop. At the bottom of the valley, on the left, several streams converge and flow into the Steïr. Pass a small stone house and its vegetable garden and continue downhill. Continue to the small bridge over the Ruisseau de Kerganappe (view of the Steïr valley).

(6) Turn back, start heading up the path you came down, pass the track you arrived on, and continue for a few dozen metres.

Unmarked

(7) Turn right to cross the village of Kerolivier and, at the road, continue straight on until the junction with the D39.

(1) Follow this road, keeping well to the grass verge on the right. Turn right onto the first road (sign: “No vehicles over 3.5 tonnes”) and continue to the starting point (S/E).

(1) Shelters for school buses.
The route along the Steïr between (5) and (6) can be very muddy in winter and may even be flooded.

On the way there or back, you can visit the Seznec Chapel. It is open every Wednesday afternoon during the summer season.

The Steïr is a river that rises in Cast (Finistère) and flows into the Odet at Quimper after a course of 27.9 km. It carries the waters from the region north of the town of Quimper. The river flows southwards but its course is winding. The Quimper–Châteaulin railway line runs through its valley between Quimper and Quéménéven, following its course more or less faithfully.