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Les menhirs de Kergadiou sont situés sur la commune de Plourin. Ils datent de 3000 ans avant notre ère. L'un d'entre eux est couché. Avec 8,75 mètres de hauteur, le menhir dressé est le deuxième plus haut menhir de Bretagne après celui de Kerloas.
La légende veut que le menhir habillé fut volé en Irlande à une vieille sorcière qui, furieuse, lança un deuxième menhir en direction du premier. Le mais fut manqué et le menhir se coucha dans la terre.
" Une dame de Grande Bretagne, émigrée en Armorique, avait rapporté dans son tablier de soie la superbe pierre qui s'érige maintenant sur les hauteurs de Kergadiou. Cette pierre, elle l'avait volée à une vieille sorcière qui, bien entendue, fut furieuse de ce larcin."
A legend explains this unusual location.
The legend, collected by Mr. Taburet in 1925 and recounted by Louis Le Guennec in "Le Finistère monumental": "A lady (a fairy?) from Great Britain, having emigrated to Armorica, brought back in her silk apron the magnificent stone that now stands on the heights of Kergadiou. She had stolen this stone from an old witch who, naturally, was furious at this theft.
Throughout Armorica, she cried: 'Ah! Your theft will not bring you any profit! I will break this stone, I will pulverize it!' In her rage, she snatched another immense block that was within reach, and with a single effort, hurled it across the sky in the direction of Kergadiou. Missing her target by a few dozen meters, her projectile is said to have lodged itself in the ground as can still be seen today."
These two megaliths were carved from the same porphyritic granite with pink feldspar inclusions, sourced from the outcrops of the Aber Ildut estuary. The same type of rock is used as at Kerloas in Plouarzel, Kerhouezel in Porspoder, and Saint Gonvarc'h in Landunvez, along with the same finish and similar dimensions, suggesting they are contemporaneous.
This easily bush-hammered granite was able to withstand the test of time, as it exhibits no cracks or defects. Its weight is impressive: these blocks have been estimated to weigh between 40 and 60 tons.
The recumbent menhir forms an 18° angle with the ground.
Its underside remains unworked, and some archaeologists use this observation to suggest that it was abandoned during the bush-hammering process and never erected.
Other hypotheses:
Christians, wanting to evangelize the region and erase the signs of the old beliefs, may have succeeded in toppling the menhir.
Treasure hunters, by digging, may have made it unstable enough to topple it.
Some have seen it as an instrument of torture: victims were thrown from its summit onto spikes and swords stuck in the ground…
A Middle Bronze Age hoard and an Iron Age bracelet have been found on the site.
There are clear traces of a megalithic construction site (pits, posts, tools).
During the occupation, the Germans installed a platform on its summit, which they used as an observation post to monitor the coast.
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