This region has varied economic, tourism and cultural sectors, and owes its cider-making heritage to its history and culture.

The Cornovii were a group of Breton tribes known since the 3rd century BC in an area that become Cornubia in the 5th century and then Cornwall in the 11th century. They always had ties to Armorica.
During Roman times, settlements in this area were essentially were trading posts. At the fall of the Roman empire, a veritable exodus occurred and these peoples settled in an area stretching from the Pointe du Raz and the Crozon Pennisula to the Ellé River in the east and the Elorn River in the north, and eventually became known as Cornouaille.

Among the first kings was the legendary Grallon. In the Middle Ages, Alan Canhiart made Cornouaille county a powerful fiefdom and his son Hoel II successfully unified Brittany. He started a dynasty that ruled the Duchy of Brittany and intermarried with other princely European houses until the assassination of Arthur of Brittany in the 12th century. In the 13th century, Cornouaille County became one of the nine counties of the Duchy of Brittany, which flourished economically and culturally in the 14th century.

In 1790, Cornouaille as an administrative unit was dismantled during the French Revolution and most of it became part of the Finstere département. The inhabitants of Cornouaille (Cornouaillais) still lay claim to this local regional identity.