Petit Mont Cairn is located in a protected natural area at the tip of the southern point of the port of Le Crouesty. The monument and the point are the property of Morbihan Département, the point being listed as an Environmentally Sensitive Area (Espace Naturel Sensible, ENS). It is a wonderful place for walkers, who can use three waymarked hiking trails to explore the coast, cairn, and nature trail.
In the early nineteenth century, Christophe-Paulin de La Poix de Fréminville named the site Petit Mont, by comparison with the far more imposing Grand Mont formed by the Tumiac mound. He believed the monument to be a small tumulus, and did not describe it any further. A few years later, Cayot Delandre estimated the tumulus to be between 8 and 10 metres high and noted that there was a dolmen at the bottom of the northern slope; but he too preferred to concentrate on the Tumiac mound.
It was not until the mid-twentieth century that the full extent of the Petit Mont site was ascertained. Firstly, a second dolmen was discovered with walls sculpted throughout in a style quite similar to that of Gavrinis. A bunker was built in the cairn during the Second World War. In the 1980s, thorough excavations were carried out; these led to a better understanding of the site, its construction phases, and its re-occupation during the Gallo-Roman period. This excavation campaign resulted in the monument being restored so that it could be visited by the public. The bunker structures have been preserved, and there are breath-taking views of the Gulf from the terrace.
©FanchGalivel/PaysagesdeMégalithes
©FanchGalivel/PaysagesdeMégalithes
©MarcSchaffner-MorbihanTourisme