phare de saint mathieu

Pointe St Mathieu is a beautiful site, with a key lighthouse of considerable antiquity, incongruously positioned among the remains of a 13C Benedictine abbey, coupled with a sémaphore close by, plus a touching memorial to those lost at sea housed in a former napoleonic fort on the very tip of the Pointe St Mathieu (see picture below). The pointe is a mile or two south of Le Conquet. This view is from our outward bound 2009 day trip to Ouessant from Brest. You can see Le Conquet's lighthouse, Kermorvan, on the extreme left of the view above.

NB: We took the Ouessant boat from Brest even though our Easter 2009 holiday let was just outside Le Conquet, so that we could sail out via the Goulet de Brest. A decision with consequences. On the way back our boat was stopped at Le Conquet and sent back to Île Molène to stand in for a broken down ferry back there. So we had to take a replacement bus to Brest to retrieve our motor and come back to Le Conquet, as good as. You'll note the weather… Stuff happens.

We took our first look at St Mathieu on the evening before shipping out to Ouessant for our week's stay, way back in 2005. Good to do this at dusk so that we could enjoy a lighthouse doing what it was built for: throwing some light on things.

We have been back. We even managed to time a visit with a climb to the lantern, as well as acquire Héron postcards! Good views from the top too, even unto Pierres Noires and the distant islands on a clear day, which we had.

The Mémorial aux Marins Morts pour la France is well seen from the lantern gallery as well.

The phare came into service in 1835. It is 37 metres high and gives out a white flash every fifteen seconds over a 24 nautical mile range. Stone built, with a spiral staircase to the watch room. It marks the entrance of the Goulet de Brest and the end of Chenal du Four. There is a junior lighthouse nearby (1899) for the local fishing boats to make safe passage round the point, showing red, green or white light in quick flashes.

Between St Mathieu and Le Conquet is yet another phare, at Lochrist, as if

there were not already a sufficency. It works as a postérieur light with Kermorvan, to guide southeastern bound vessels through the Chenal de la Helle. Some call it a phare some call it a feu. Either way it is an uninspiring lumpen thing, cast in concrete and sited south of Lochrist in what looks a bit like a farmyard. Seen it, shall not be revisiting (wrong, I drove past it this year, 2026, so for the record I include a new snap).

You will have noticed from most of my photos on this postings the lovely bright days we had when visiting St Mathieu. You will have pondered why so grey on the sailing past of the point. Well that is the law of sod in action. The worst weather of our week near Le Conquet in 2009 was the boat trip and day on Ouessant. Nice before. Nice after. But Ouessant is spiffing whatever the weather, be assured.

I have been lucky enough to accquire in Roscoff a square illustration print of St. Mathieu but this is the same illustration as it appears in the 2019 calendrier, by JBH, with thanks. 

The photographs are by me. The aforementioned square rendition is, or was on the wall on the landing along with others from the master…

footnote: Inclement weather was not going to stop us when we came back to the point in February 2026. Here's a flavour: