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A Short History of the Cevennes

Like other areas of southern France, in prehistoric times the Cevennes was a melting pot of different tribes and cultures, although it seems that early man took longer to penetrate the narrow upland valleys of this remote region. The earliest traces of civilisation have been found in caves and overhanging grottos where primitive man sheltered in order to survive by hunting and fishing.

During the Bronze Age hundreds of megaliths – standing stones called menhirs and dolmens – were constructed and placed in prominent places on tops of ridges and passes (see Walks 5, 18 and 23). Why they were put there, and how, is still a mystery – they could have been used for religious purposes, as waymarks for travellers or even for early scientific experiments regarding the solar system. In any case, the size of some of them and the fact that they were dragged to these remote summits is a tribute to the ingenuity and courage of our ancestors.

Two tribes of Celtic origin occupied the Causses and the Cevennes regions around 6000 BC, the Gabales in the north and the Volques in the south. The conquest of France by Julius Caesar and the arrival of the Romans did not affect the remote areas of the Cevennes to any great extent, although archives have shown that in order to penetrate the Massif Central, ‘Caesar did not let winter hinder him from crossing the Cevennes on foot’, probably taking the drailles already in use by the Celts. Vestiges of a Roman road linking Nîmes to Millau can still be seen (Walk 3). Mention is also made that the most popular cheese in Rome came from the Lozère region. The Romans were also the first people to exploit the mineral riches of the region, and evidence has been found of early mining of iron, copper and silver, especially in the Tarn Gorge, where remains of Roman settlements have been discovered.