It has been associated with the forest of Brocéliande and many locations from Arthurian legend, including the Val sans retour, the tomb of Merlin, and the fountain of Barenton.

The surplus of water feeds the many brooks at the bottoms of small valleys before flowing into the river Aff, then into the Vilaine, and on to the area around Redon in the south of Ille-et-Vilaine.

Their location was enabled by the proximity of an open-cast deposit of iron ore at Gelée (a site near the village of Paimpont), the existence of a major river system, and the easy supply of locally produced charcoal.

During the French Revolution, the abolition of protection triggered massive clear-cutting of the forest as the wood was excessively exploited to power the blast furnaces of local industry, which employed charcoal.

[2] In 1875, the forest was bought from Prince Philippe, Count of Paris by shipowner and industrialist Louis Levesque, for rest and pleasure.

During World War II, paratroopers of the SAS of Free France were dropped to join the partisans of the FFI in the forest with the mission of delaying German reinforcements as part of the Normandy landings in 1944.

In September 1990, a large wildfire devastated 450 hectares of the forest of Paimpont, especially the area of the Val sans retour, raging for five days.

[5] Another massive blaze (preceded by a lesser one started by a man illegally burning garden waste two months earlier[6]) occurred during three days in August 2022 as part of the 2022 European wildfires, which completely destroyed nearly 400 hectares of woodlands and moors and damaged some 230 more.

It is mostly privately owned by landowners who maintain and exploit it for timber and for hunting; only a small part in the northeast (10%) is state-owned and managed by the National Forest Office.

[10] The Paimpont sites are implemented through signs and pedestrian trails designed to introduce visitors to Arthurian locations, with explanatory panels linking each place to a legendary tale.

It was originally a Benedictine monastery but was inhabited by canons from the 13th century until the Revolution, when the abbey was nationalized and sold as biens nationaux in 1790.

The Château de Comper is a former castle and mansion located in northern part of the forest, two kilometers east of the village of Concoret.

The castle has been the scene of much fighting—including being badly damaged by fire in out-of-control riots in the forest during the Revolution in 1790[12]—and has passed into the hands of several families.

The most famous of the legends associated with it is that of the Mariée de Trécesson (of "white lady" type), which, unusual for the region, has no Arthurian connections but instead seems to be inspired by a true story.

Although the first researchers extensively studied moor ecology, soils, and hydrology, other works concern subjects far removed from the local biotope, such as the behavior of primates.

The Tombeau du Géant was reported as completely destroyed by the 2022 fire,[20][21] but was in fact saved by firefighters, along with the first few rows of trees surrounding it.

In 1896, Félix Bellamy decided that the Val sans retour was the place that inspired the anonymous 13th-century author to write the episode of the Vale in Lancelot-Grail.

[24] According to the French tradition of Arthurian legend, Queen Morgan le Fay, half-sister of King Arthur, betrayed by her lover, decided to keep all the unfaithful knights as prisoners in a vale of that name.

'Church of the Holy Grail'), a Catholic church featuring imagery of Morgan and other Arthurian characters associated with the Vale reimagined as Christian-themed scenes, painted by two German prisoner-of-war artists after WWII, as commissioned by eccentric local priest Father Henri Gillard.

According to a local legend, a refractory priest named Pierre-Paul Guillotin took refuge there during the French Revolution, continued to administer sacraments and blessings in the region, and wrote a valuable journal of revolutionary events.

[30] The Fountain of Barenton (also known as Berenton, Belenton, or Balenton) is located west of the forest, near the hamlet of Folle-Pensée, and is quite difficult to access.