La Tête de Mort

Trip No.193  Entry No.8  Date Added: 13th Jul 2020
Site Type: Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 30th May 1993. My rating: Access 4

Log Text: Cycling camping trip of north Brittany, day 2. Tregastel, Ile Grande, Tel Star Satellite place. Snake! Lots of ancient stones. At the northern end of Coz Pors beach is a large granite outcrop which viewed from some angles resembles a giant skull, known as La Tête de Mort.

Oratoire de St Guirec

Trip No.193  Entry No.3  Date Added: 13th Jul 2020
Site Type: Ancient Temple Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 29th May 1993. My rating: Access 4

Log Text: Cycling camping trip of north Brittany, day 1. Cycle Roscoff, Morlaix, Lannion, Ploumanac'h. Too far. 52 miles. Funny Rocks. Camp and head to Ploumanach for a big seafood dinner.

The Oratoire de St Guirec is situated on the beach named after St Guirec, the Welsh monk who landed here on his voyage from Britain in the 6th century, allegedly arriving in a stone trough pulled by angels. The original wooden statue has been replaced by one of stone, after becoming damaged by the local tradition for girls to stick a pin in its nose when they wanted to marry.

Rochers de Ploumanac'h

Trip No.193  Entry No.2  Date Added: 13th Jul 2020
Site Type: Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 29th May 1993. My rating: Access 4

Log Text: Cycling camping trip of north Brittany, day 1. Cycle Roscoff, Morlaix, Lannion, Ploumanac'h. Too far. 52 miles. Funny Rocks. Camp and head to Ploumanach for a big seafood dinner. The headland north of Ploumanac'h is now a municipal park, and has the most spectacular coastline where the pink granite rocks tumble into the emerald blue sea. This headland abounds in strangely shaped rocks, many with names such as the tortoise, the witch, the Egyptian and a bottle. There is a beautiful signed footpath which runs all around this headland from the beach where the Oratoire de St Guirec is positioned, marking the place where the Welsh monk landed after his voyage from Britain in the 6th century, allegedly arriving in a stone trough pulled by angels.

Toul an Lann menhir

Trip No.193  Entry No.1  Date Added: 13th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 29th May 1993. My rating: Access 5

Log Text: Cycling camping trip of north Brittany, day 1. Cycle Roscoff, Morlaix, Lannion, Ploumanac'h. Too far. 52 miles. Funny Rocks. Big seafood dinner.

Kornevec Alignement

Trip No.204  Entry No.61  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This alignement can be found just to the south of Loge Charlotte, and is signposted. The alignement is a row of menhirs, now nearly all fallen, which runs for about 300 metres through the forest on a bearing of 065°. The stones are all about 3 metres in length, and are spaced at about 4 metre intervals.

Over 200 stones have been found here. It would be nice to see these stood up again, at least the non broken ones, and also a bit better looked after, as it is all very overgrown. The site is not helped by there being new trees planted in amongst the stones.

Men Braz menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.56  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: I wasted best part of an hour for this stone to clear of about 30 to 40 scouts having lunch and playing games here. Eventually they left so I could look at the stone on my own. It is easy to find from the L'Etoiles roundabout, where there is a few parking places. Take the forest track south for a couple of hundred metres, and then turn right at the signpost down a footpath, from where it is about 80 metres into the forest between the rows of trees. The "big stone" is about 3.8 metres tall, and looks lovely. Beside it is another fallen stone, perhaps even bigger.

Allée Couverte de Men Braz

Trip No.204  Entry No.57  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: In the vicinity of the Men-Braz are many other stones, which I am lead to believe are the remains of a much wrecked dolmen.

Men-Bihan Allée Couverte

Trip No.204  Entry No.55  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: About 50 metres from Men-Bihan is a line of 5 flat stones, looking very much like they have been placed there. There might be remnants of stones underneath. The line is about 10 metres long, and is oriented roughly east to west. Is this the remains of an allée couverte, or just natural ?

Menhir de Men Bihan

Trip No.204  Entry No.54  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: The "little stone" is well hidden deep in the forest. I found it as much by luck as by good navigation using a detailed map and asking people. There are no signs or anything to help you, and it is 100 metres away from the nearest footpath. The menhir is about 1.8 metres tall, and a nice white granite all covered in moss. Its a nice stone to find, partially because of the difficulty in getting to it, with no gps or anything to go by.

Petit-Resto menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.53  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: This menhir can be seen at the edge of the road, but it is difficult to stop or turn round here. It is a sort of triangular stone, perhaps 2 metres high, just at the edge of a field. It has weird weathering, and looks like it has got a tide mark on it.

Soldats-de-Saint-Cornély

Trip No.204  Entry No.52  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: This site consists of three parallel rows of stones, about 140 in all, running southeast to northwest, spaced at about 40 metres from each other, but what a terrible state these poor soldiers have fallen into. Not only has a road junction been built right into the middle of them, and a forest grown over them, but many of them have been taken away to ornament a garden in Lorient. What remains there are have become very overgrown and almost impossible to see, and one of the lines has been ploughed up. The only real way to tell where the stones are is by looking at the rows of hedges and trees.

The central row can be followed eastwards through the forest for about 100 to 200 metres until it gets to a clearing, within which a sort of Asterix the Gaul village complex has been built and abandoned, and is now decaying all around. At this end of the rows are the remains of two tertre tumuli, which can just about be made out as raised mounds with a few stones protruding, but these have suffered terribly. One has in fact had a sort of fairground sideshow built on it, while the other, with a large capstone still to be seen, has been surrounded with a fence, and a sort of oven, or fire made on top of it.

The poor Cornély army is very much in need of getting back into some sort of order. This is perhaps the monument most in need of some TLC and protection that I have ever seen.

Dolmen de Roh Du 1

Trip No.204  Entry No.51  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This simple dolmen, still half within its small round mound, can be found a few hundred metres walk into the forest from a signposted parking place nearby. It has been dated to between 2000 and 2400 BC, and has a very simple form, reminiscent to the dolmens to be found further to the south of France. There are two side slabs and an end stone making a chamber about 2 metres long by 1,5 metres wide, with a single capstone sitting on top. The remains of the mound are about 10 metres in diameter.

Kermorvan Dolmen

Trip No.204  Entry No.50  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This is the remains of a little dolmen at the roadside to the southwest of Moustoir-Ac. There is a single capstone, approximately round with diameter 2.5 metres, sitting on top of four or five uprights. There are a few more stones around the area. It is possible that this is the end of an allée couverte which has been wrecked by the road being built through it.

Menhir du Mené

Trip No.204  Entry No.49  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This tall thin menhir is built into a roadside bank, and is more than 4 metres tall from the top of that. If the ground level is at the road level, the menhir would be 7 metres tall. It is difficult to get to see due to all the undergrowth, but when round the back, in amongst the brambles, it looks like it has a crook carved onto it.

Kermarquer menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.47  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: This superb menhir can be found in a little woodland clearing, not far from the roadside to the southwest of Moustoir-Ac. It is signposted, and there is a little parking area.

The menhir, which is slightly leaning, must be getting on for 7 metres tall, and it has been mostly shaped and smoothed, although one face is fairly rough and has probably had bits fall off over the millennia. Not only has the menhir been shaped and smoothed, but there are also carvings on it, which are quite difficult to make out in the strong mid afternoon sunlight, but at other times may be quite clear. I counted at least four crook shapes on the stone, two on the southwest side, one on the southeast face and one on the north east side, but there are probably more. These carvings are not engravings, but are in relief, and they face in both directions.

Kerara Menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.46  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This is a nice shaped menhir, just under 4 metres tall, standing in a little clearing in an area of many natural granite rocks. It is just beside the road and has a parking place and signpost, from which it is about a 50 metre walk. Its got some lovely shade for this very hot and sunny afternoon. It is only a few hundred metres from the large Kermarquer menhir.

Larcuste cairns 3

Trip No.204  Entry No.45  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: To the south of the two restored cairns, it is clear to see that there is a very faint raise in the adjacent field which is the ploughed out remains of a further cairn. In fact there were once two more cairns here.

Larcuste cairns 2

Trip No.204  Entry No.44  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Cairn 2 is a slightly bigger mound, with only a single eastern facing entrance. From this entrance, the passageway continues for about 10 metres into the cairn, and from which 6 chambers open out onto the sides. Each chamber is topped with a capstone, 4 of which remain today. Most of the walling is made with dry stones, very few large slabs are in place. Some of these chambers are quite round, while others look sort of squareish, and all are about 1 to 1.5 metres in dimension.

Larcuste cairns 1

Trip No.204  Entry No.43  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Cairn 1, the northern of the two, contains two dolmens with entry passageways, which both open to the east. The chambers are made up of alternating slabs and drystone walling. Only the northern chamber has its capstone in place, along with one of its passageway covers.

If the reconstruction is accurate, then it looks to me as if this was built in two stages, the southern single dolmen built first in a smaller cairn, with the northern chamber being added at a later dateto the outside of the original cairn. Each chamber is about 3 metres by 2.5 metres, with a 3 to 4 metre long entry passageway.

I have read that there are some very faint engravings and carvings of crooks and serpents on a few of the large stones inside this cairn 1.

Larcuste Cairns

Trip No.204  Entry No.42  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The remains of these chambered cairns are easily found by following the plentiful roadsigns a couple of kilometres to the south of Colpo. This well known and important site occupies a hilltop position in open countryside, but has a large area set aside around it. What it consists of these days are the remains of two cairns, but once there were several more lined up with them. Looking around, a bit further to the south on the top of the hill it is easy to imagine there being another large cairn or two, with undulations in the ploughed fields suggesting their position.

The two cairns we have today are largely made up of dry stones, and sit beside one another, with their eastern entrances aligned with one another. The site has been dated to about 4000 BC. Both of the cairns have had major restoration work carried out on them after excavations in 1968 to 1972, and its a shame to report that, although lots of concrete and cement has been used to hold them together, much of this work is now falling apart. I guess its due to the number of visitors this place must get, but its in need of further work to prevent deterioration. This is what prevents me giving a 5 for the condition of the place.

I have since read that there were indeed once 4 cairns here originally, the other two of which have been completely ploughed out. I have also read that there are some very faint engravings and carvings of crooks and serpents on a few of the large stones inside cairn 1.