Phare de la Pointe des Chats, Maritime navigation lighthouse at Pointe des Chats in Groix, France
Phare de la Pointe des Chats is a round tower with a white masonry shaft and a red upper section, rising 15.22 m (17.92 m above sea level) on the rocky Pointe des Chats. A white gallery rail encircles the top, below a dark lantern room with a small dome and thin antenna. A low white building with a pitched roof extends from its base.
Built from 1897 on the site of an old defence battery on the rocky Chats reef, the lighthouse entered service on 15 October 1898. It replaced a small beacon on Fort de la Croix, moved because the guns of new heavy artillery shook it. A storm on 2 February 1904 flooded the keeper's garden and seawater entered the freshwater cistern, taking four days to repair.
The name "Chats" comes from the nickname Groisillon islanders gave the reefs stretching over a kilometre off the point. The light shows a red flash every five seconds, visible about 19 nautical miles, guiding ships to and from Lorient past this jagged coast. The tower is automated and inhabited but not watched over, and cannot be visited.
The lighthouse is visible from outside and easy to reach by walking to the headland. The rocky surroundings can be slippery when wet or windy, so sturdy shoes are recommended for visiting.
In 2017 a megalithic funerary monument with a burial passage was found near the lighthouse; excavations have run since 2020, the latest in June 2025. The point is also a protected geological reserve where garnets, micaschists, glaucophane and epidote reach the surface.
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