Shadow Dragon

Moulin G

October 2026 | France | Extant

A large industrial watermill in the depths of Brittany.

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HISTORY: this large watermill was built in the 19th century on the site of a medieval mill, on the banks of the River Blavet in the Morbihan Department of Brittany, France. It is five storeys tall, and has two houses attached to the south side of the building. The 19th century saw the mill rebuilt and turned into a “minoterie”, which is the French word for a large scale flour mill. The mill saw its heyday in the second half of the 19th century after its rebuild. In the 1920s, the traditional water wheel was removed and a new Francis type turbine was installed to power the mill. At the same time, the mill stones and traditional gear systems which powered the mill were removed and replaced with roller mills and belt driven gears. At the same time, a generator was installed to generate electricity. This is still in situ, albeit it is buried under mountains of rubbish and pigeon excrement.

The mill continued to operate until the 1990s, when it was shut down for the last time. Generation of electricity also ceased at the same time and the mill fell into disuse. From its closure to now, the mill has fallen into increasing dereliction. The two adjoining houses have seen their floors and roofs cave in, and the mill’s own roof has begun to cave in too. The owner was ordered in recent times to carry out work on the building but he has not yet done so. The only work he has done is to rebuild the turbine house and re-equip it to generate electricity, leaving the rest of the mill to fall further into decline.

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THE EXPLORE: this was another mill that I had seen in my childhood and therefore I had wanted to explore it for years. Access was easy enough, but the interior of the mill is in an extremely bad condition now. The floors are covered in inches of pigeon shit which cover holes that you can quite easily put your legs through. There are holes in the floor too! And some of the staircases are majorly unstable. Not to mention the roof is on borrowed time. Despite these issues, it was a rather nice explore. Not a huge amount to see, but enough to make it worth photographing. The money shots were in the basement where the driving gears were all laid out in a fifty foot line. Enjoy the photos!

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