It is well known that general relativity does not admit gravitational geons that are stationary, asymptotically flat, singularity free and topologically trivial. However, it is likely that general relativity will receive corrections at large curvatures and the modified field equations may admit solutions corresponding to this type of geon. If geons are produced in the early universe and survive until today they could account for some of the dark matter that has been ‘observed’ in galaxies and galactic clusters. In this paper I consider gravitational geons in (1+1)-dimensional theories of gravity. I show that the Jackiw–Teitelboim theory with corrections proportional to R2 and admits gravitational geons. I also show that gravitational geons exist in a class of theories that includes Lagrangians proportional to R2/3.