The three castles in Saint-Céré

This hike allows you to discover the Césarine Plateau, which overlooks the Bave Valley. Here you can admire Saint-Céré and its three castles: Les Tours de Saint-Laurent, Castelnau-Bretenoux and Montal. You will walk between the limestone Causse and Ségala, a land of chestnut trees.

Details

1740505
Creation:
Last update:
Last review:
  • Walking
    Activity: Walking
  • ↔
    Distance: 8.87 km
  • ◔
    Average duration: 3h 10 
  • ▲
    Difficulty: Moderate

  • ⚐
    Back to start: Yes
  • ↗
    Ascent: + 211 m
  • ↘
    Descent: - 211 m

  • ▲
    Highest point: 360 m
  • ▼
    Lowest point: 148 m

Photos

Description of the walk

Parking des Récollets in Saint-Céré.

(S/E) Turn left, walk along the quay and pass in front of the former convent and church. Immediately afterwards, take Rue des Rampeaux on the left. Stay on this lane until you reach the junction with Rue de la Croix de la Grade. Turn left to reach a crossroads (near the police station). Cross and continue straight ahead. At the fork, keep left on a small lane that turns into a path and runs alongside the Négrie stream.

(1) At the road, turn right and follow the yellow markings that climb alongside chestnut trees towards La Meynardie (view of the Towers of Saint-Laurent). At the hamlet, continue straight ahead and follow the markings that lead between fields and undergrowth to Moulin Haut. Cross the stream and walk alongside the building.

(2) At the end of the building, climb up to the left and follow this stony path. At the fork, go up to the right, then a few metres further on, follow the yellow markings on the left. Follow this path lined with dry stone walls that climbs up to the Causse de Lauriol.

(3) Please note: at the crossroads, at the foot of the signposts (do not go straight ahead and do not follow the yellow markings), take the path on the right that runs along the plateau and passes close to the high-voltage power lines. You are now on the Causse de Lauriol. Continue along the path that runs between old dry stone walls.

(4) Continue straight ahead, enjoying the view of Loubressac, Castelnau and then Saint-Céré. At the cross above the cliff, you can admire the Tours Saint-Laurent and the Renaissance castle of Montal on your left.

(5) Continue along the path, which descends a few metres further on (caution: very slippery in wet weather).

(6) At the bottom of the vineyard, the path turns into a small road which you follow, keeping to the right. Pass in front of the industrial buildings, then follow the road to the left and pass in front of the Hôtel du Département.

(7) Turn right onto Rue André Boyer. Just before the Gendarmerie, turn left onto a road that joins Rue des Césarines and Quai des Récollet. Walk along the right-hand side of the quay to reach the Récollets car park (S/E).

Waypoints

  1. S/E : km 0 - alt. 149 m - Récollets car park - Bave (rivière) à finaliser
  2. 1 : km 0.83 - alt. 157 m - Rue Henri Rouzet
  3. 2 : km 3.51 - alt. 246 m - The Moulin Haut
  4. 3 : km 4.51 - alt. 344 m - White Gate
  5. 4 : km 4.76 - alt. 360 m - Causse de Lauriol
  6. 5 : km 6.27 - alt. 245 m - Cross on the cliff
  7. 6 : km 6.75 - alt. 172 m - Road junction
  8. 7 : km 7.82 - alt. 148 m - Rue André Boyer
  9. S/E : km 8.87 - alt. 149 m - Parking des Récollets

Worth a visit

Visit the Château de Montal and Castelnau
Montal features orderly façades delicately adorned with sculptures evoking the destiny and thoughts of Jeanne de Balsac, its creator. It also tells the story of the rescue of a monument in peril. Maurice Fenaille, a wealthy industrialist and patron of the arts, bought a dilapidated château at the beginning of the 20th century. He restored the sculpted façade with the help of Rodin's practitioners and decorated the interior rooms with a rich collection of furniture and tapestries.

Castelnau is a model of a fortified castle. Seat of the powerful family of the Barons of Castelnau, it is an imposing testimony to the evolution of castle architecture. Designed to withstand the assaults of medieval warfare, it adapted to the advances in artillery in the 15th and 16th centuries. Devastated by fire in 1851, Castelnau was reborn thanks to Jean Mouliérat, tenor at the Opéra Comique. Between 1896 and 1932, he restored it and installed a large collection of furniture and objets d'art to restore the castle's soul from the eras it had lived through.

Reviews and comments

4.1 / 5
Based on 13 reviews

Reliability of the description
3.8 / 5
Ease of following the route
3.8 / 5
Route interest
4.9 / 5
User 16799693

Overall rating : 4 / 5

Date of your route : Oct 21, 2025
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★☆☆ Average
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

Hello,
During my hike on this route, it seemed to me that it is not very well used. The markings are starting to become less visible in some places, and at certain key points, the landmarks are not very visible.
Despite this, we were able to follow the path using the map and my topographical experience.
It's a beautiful and pleasant route, especially when the sun is shining, as it is relatively shaded.
There is a beautiful view of Saint Céré and the surrounding area when you reach the limestone plateau and from the viewpoints.

Machine-translated

Pit
Pit

Overall rating : 4.3 / 5

Date of your route : Oct 18, 2025
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

Very nice route, fairly intuitive except when you have to climb down the cliff.

Machine-translated

User 16799693

Overall rating : 3.7 / 5

Date of your route : Sep 06, 2025
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★☆☆ Average
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : No

In fact, the circuit is very interesting to do, well explained by the Visorando app, but very poorly marked on the ground.
Many key locations lack markings and in some places the markings are barely visible.
Nevertheless, it is still a route worth exploring, with beautiful views of Saint Céré and its surroundings.

Machine-translated

Chriscat
Chriscat

Overall rating : 4 / 5

Date of your route : Nov 25, 2024
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★☆☆ Average
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

A beautiful hike, not very difficult, with a few challenges in finding the right path, but fortunately we have navigation systems on our phones.
The castles add to the charm of this hike.

Machine-translated

waki89
waki89

Overall rating : 4 / 5

Date of your route : Jun 21, 2024
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : No

At the end of the route (7), the signpost indicates not Rue Boyer but Chemin de la Môle.

Machine-translated

Julien46
Julien46

Overall rating : 3 / 5

Date of your route : Sep 06, 2022
Reliability of the description : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Ease of following the route : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

Signposting needs reviewing. Description of the route is vague, particularly at the start of the hike.
Not sure that doing the route in reverse is a good idea, as the view of the three castles is the main attraction of the hike. Might as well save the best for last.

Machine-translated

Jeannot78310
Jeannot78310

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : Aug 03, 2022
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

A very beautiful hike. I did it "backwards" and it's better that way because the slope at the end is easier to manage going uphill than downhill.
2 hours 15 minutes without pushing yourself too hard.

Machine-translated

Martine Desicy
Martine Desicy

Hike planned for September 2022

Machine-translated

calumet46
calumet46

Overall rating : 4.7 / 5

Date of your route : Jul 12, 2021
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

Sometimes there is a discrepancy between the map and the description: the "cross" is at point 5, so why mention it at point 4?
Signposting is now present along the entire length of this trail.

Machine-translated

Patrik46
Patrik46

Overall rating : 4.3 / 5

Date of your route : May 03, 2021
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

I did the route in reverse, with a steeper hill at the beginning but much shorter than in the other direction, with a lovely view of the castles and beautiful scenery, and pleasant sunlit paths through the woods. A lovely walk.

Machine-translated

LéonieB
LéonieB

Overall rating : 3.3 / 5

Date of your route : Aug 05, 2020
Reliability of the description : ★★☆☆☆ Disappointing
Ease of following the route : ★★★☆☆ Average
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

The walk was very pretty, but we got completely lost between numbers 3 and 4. The signs are unclear, and even with our GPS, we had a lot of trouble finding our way and magically found number 5 as we were trying to head back down towards Saint-Céré. We never found a crossroads with signposts as expected, so we followed the yellow markings, but they took us off the hiking trail, in a direction far from Saint-Céré. We turned back, tried to head in the right direction, and after quite a few detours, we came across a green metal gate (probably the one that was white when the descriptions were written?), which we went through. We then reached the summit fairly quickly, i.e. the famous Causse de Lauriol, and it was very pretty, but the problem is that the descriptions are very unclear and as there are no markings in this area, it becomes difficult. We came across lots of intersections that weren't mentioned in the descriptions and had to take a guess based on what we thought we could see on the map (which was very small and not very accurate). We were looking for the cross on the cliff on the Causse, at the top, but in reality it is much further away, on the path going down (the one we ended up on: we didn't retrace our steps to see where it started, perhaps we didn't see it despite our searches because at one point it was overgrown?). In short, a magnificent walk (really) (and mostly sheltered, which is very welcome when it's over 30 degrees), but make sure you have a really accurate app with GPS that places you on a clear map that you can zoom in on, otherwise you risk getting lost. We personally walked 1.5km too far.

Machine-translated

Jeannemarieantoinette
Jeannemarieantoinette

Overall rating : 4 / 5

Date of your route : Jun 28, 2020
Reliability of the description : ★★★☆☆ Average
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

Hello.
On this hike, after the upper mill, we were supposed to turn right, following the yellow markings, but the path was buried under vegetation and overgrown with brambles, making it impossible to pass. So we turned left. When we found a yellow marker, we thought we had found the path again. But in that area, there are yellow markers everywhere. We got lost and ended up walking an extra 45 minutes. Best regards

Machine-translated

heron628
heron628

Overall rating : 4.3 / 5

Date of your route : Jun 07, 2020
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

Hello,
A beautiful hike, but it is advisable to do the route in the opposite direction because of a slightly steep climb
(opposite direction marked in yellow).

Machine-translated

Claire Laboucarie
Claire Laboucarie

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : Feb 03, 2020
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good

The route is very pleasant, a beautiful route with stunning views. There is a slight incline but it is accessible to beginner hikers.

Machine-translated

Other walks in the area

For more walks, use our search engine .

The GPS track and description are the property of this route's author. Please do not copy them without permission.