Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Kermain's moth is an ancient castral moth located in Langonnet, Morbihan, England. It stands in a marshy valley west of the hamlet of Kermain, about 3.2 km east of central town. This site, erected in the middle of the Middle Ages, is distinguished by its truncated form, 3 meters high and 40 meters wide, surrounded by ditches still drowned. A sommital platform, welcoming the remains of a circular stone structure cut about 7 metres in diameter, suggests the presence of a tower, probably more residential than military.

Built in a context where fortifications evolved towards less purely defensive functions, Kermain's moth was abandoned at the end of the 14th century. The local lords preferred a manor built 200 metres south, reflecting an architectural and social transition. The site, including the motte, its ditches and the surrounding terrain (parks YX 7 and 48a), was listed as historical monuments by order of 28 November 1995. Today it is privately owned and associative, it bears witness to the adaptations of the Breton aristocracy between security and comfort.

The ditches, fed by a stream diversion, and the wetland location highlight a passive defensive strategy, typical of late castral mots. The remains of the circular stone structure, though fragmentary, offer a rare example of seigneurial residential architecture of this period in interior Brittany. The absence of traces of major conflicts on the site reinforces the hypothesis of a first-hand domestic use, in a territory then marked by relative feudal stability.

External links