| | "There is a Notice, on the slope, at the end of a path that leads to the famous field. It is a handwritten note with the almost indistinguishable: 'Stop! Visit the phantom hole. One franc per person' Clearly this hole didn't amount to much. And as a ghost consists of nothing at all, one might probably hesitate. But after all, as it evokes mystery, one abandons the accelerator for the brake...
On this plateau, which the Henvic road crosses at the old 'Rope Passageway', the horizon is filled with artichokes. Their heads dominate, emerging from the soil, like a mob of korrigans or hobgoblins.
At the end of the pathway is Mez ar Groas farm, near the cross, because about a hundred metres away is a cross that conceals the intersection of the roads from Henvic to Carantec and the 'Rope Crossing' at Feunteun Speur. Mez ar Groas is also known as Toul ar Brohet, (the badger's hole), for reasons hardly known, or whose origin was lost a long time ago.
One Friday evening, Mr. Yves Kerrien, a farmer, was cutting a row of artichokes, in company with his asistant, Mr. Joseph Bohic, who was carrying a wicker pannier.
A loaded pannier forces you to lower your head, so Mr. Bohic, with lowered head, was looking down at the ground. What was the reason for this depresion in the middle of the field, he wondered ? He couldn't account for it. A vigorous thrust with his heel provoked a crumbling that left him dumbstruck. A deep hole had opened up, which showed one and a half metres deep the the top part of three underground passageways. Certainly, the locality of Toul ar Brohat was well known, but all the same these galleries which were more than one metre high, and whose partitions appear smeared of a layer of clay, were definitely not the work of badgers.
Mr. Kerrien recalled that one day that in a neighbouring field, at scarcely fifty metres away, a granite tile was discovered which he had tried to remove. But it was so large that it disappeared under the path that led to his farm, and he had not continued with trying to remove it. Three underground passageways! That represented a considerable work, especially as from this prominent and deserted place they must go quite far. One appeared to head southwards, toward the farm at Kervéguen Vras, where there was a manor of which there are no longer any vestiges remaining. The second northbound one was in the direction of Kerily Vras, where there was a former manor whose buildings had been previously rebuilt. The third, westwards, pointing toward the river Penzé, on the edge of the former Rope Crossing, stands another manor, the one at Lingoz.
This manor at Lingoz, at the mouth of the Penzé, very near Carantec, is situated in an admirable site. On the left is the tip of Saint - Pol, with its bell-towers. Towards the open sea the estuary expands, blocked by the Ile Callot. To the right of the hotels, the villas of Carantec also dominate the entry of the Morlaix roadstead . This corner, perfectly sheltered, whose foreshore provides astonishing resources, and where the earth provides surprising fertility, has been at all times a favoured country. Next to the ancient manor, on a slope, is a menhir that testifies to this. Clothed entirely in ivy, a robust ivy that grows impressive roots, it has taken on the appearance of one of those old oak trunks that survives better than beneath the cover of other plants. Quite near, right in the middle of an artichoke fierld, is a no less verdant dolmen. But, clearly, these were only approximate directions. It would be nice to know of some underground openings in the area.
Of course, there is said to be one at the manor at Quistillic, on the banks of the Penzé, but where is it? The entry, situated inside the house, has the appearance of a well whose depth is not established. The underground passage would pass under the river to reach, on the other bank, a former manor whose dovecote still exists. But, there again, no one really knows. No one really know the origins of these mysterious things. Close to the cross at Kerrichard, on the road from Henvic to Penzé, you can see a tumulus which has its own history, or perhaps its own legend that is far from being forgotten. On Palm Sunday, if the sun shines during the reading of the gospel, a barrel of gold will appear from the soil. But if you pass through the neighbourhood, turn about, don't try to glower at the tumulus sacrilegiously; the barrel is guarded by a terrifying snake and a single glance would consign you to damnation.
Obviously it is all very well building legends on affirmations that it is prohibited to do any control even with a look. That is what the local farmer thought, who undertook to dig the site one day. He was disappointed: he only found an old rusty fork there and didn't continue searching. But after having made the tour of Henvic, we are at some distance from the underground passageways. Here the owner recommended not to undertake any excavations. He had heard that the examination of the discovery should be pursued methodically. But then, in Henvic like everywhere else, treasure is so often spoken about! Meanwhile, the farmer, on whose artichokes we walk, doesn't hesitate to say: ' One franc each, please!' " Ch Leger |