Kerroc’h cromlech

Trip No.203  Entry No.415  Date Added: 21st May 2020
Site Type: Stone Circle Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 14th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Oppsite to the dolmen, the gently arced wall around the house (a strange large gatewayed studio) is made up using many large stones. Perhaps there was once some sort of cromlech here, like that at Crucuny, perhaps the wall is made usong large stones from the ruined dolmen.

Kerroc'h Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.414  Date Added: 21st May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 14th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: A 4 metre by 3 metre capstone sits one end in the air on two supports, while the other side is on the ground. There is one more bit of large stone here, which may be a support, or may be a broken bit of capstone. It would seem that the rest of the stones from this dolmen have been used to build the wall around the house opposite, a strange large gatewayed studio. But perhaps there was once some sort of cromlech here.

Carnac Musée de Préhistoire

Trip No.203  Entry No.413  Date Added: 21st May 2020
Site Type: Museum Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 14th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: There is lots of stuff in here, found at various places in the locality. Some good explanations of the various types of dolmen and tumulus to be found, and some lovely replicas of many of the engraved stones to be found. Seems like I have seen most of these now.

Fontaine St Michel

Trip No.203  Entry No.412  Date Added: 21st May 2020
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 14th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Following the path round the back of the tumulus looking to get a good photograph there was a sign to Fontaine St Michel which I followed. After a few hundred metres there is a nice little well with a little well house and offerings area above a clear pool of water slowly bubbling up from the ground.

I have no doubt that this spring has been here for thousands of years and indeed quenched the thirst of the men building the tumulus. And this turned out to be site 500 in my French stonehunting trip catalogue of site visits. Incredible really that I am seeing hundreds of dolmens and menhirs yet a well gets to be site 500. Probably only my third well !

Saint-Michel tumulus

Trip No.203  Entry No.411  Date Added: 21st May 2020
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 14th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Very old and big. Visits inside no longer available like they were in the 1980s.

Kerluir Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.410  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: There's a big mound here on top of a hillock, to the east of the Kerluir menhir, but its all covered with gorse and blackthorn. However, there is a way through, and somewhere in the middle can be found this tiny little dolmen, which consists of a capstone sitting on two sidestones, with a few other stones in the vicinity. It wouldn't surprise me if this wasn't just a set of stones from an entry corridor, and that there is, or was, something much bigger lurking in the thick undergrowth !

Kerluir Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.409  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: This is a nicely shaped 4 metre high menhir in the middle of a field about 800 metres to the south of the Kermario alignements, and as such, the poor thing is a bit overshadowed. But I was taken with its leaning and its pointy top, and liked it a lot. To find this go down the track to the south of the Kermario dolmen, and then you will find it across the field a bit further to the south at the corner.

Kergavat Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.408  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: Right beside the busy D.781 road just to the south of Plouharnel, can be found this dolmen. In fact, the road has cut through the entrance corridor. This would have been a fairly big standard dolmen with a 4 metre or 3 metre chamber with a corridor to the south east. The single capstone sits on several supports, but its hard to think of this as a good one, being cut by the road, adjacent to a house, overgrown with oats and underneath some powerlines.

Kerzerho Alignements

Trip No.203  Entry No.407  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: It’s a pity about the busy road running through them, but they are here, looking superb in the sun and you can wander freely amongst them. However, I just want to get back now, having spent almost an hour fixing my bike. There is a Dutch couple here, the man spending ages taking photos with all sorts of kit. Three big bags worth. And wifey posing in front of the stones. These Dutch, eh ? There are a fantastic number of stones in the field here, some of them really lovely shapes.

Mané Braz menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.403  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Just the other side of the footpath to the Mané Braz dolmens, down the hill, is a line of large stones still standing, each about a metre high. There are many other stones. I have no idea what this may be. Maybe a wrecked tomb of some kind.

Kerjean Menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.404  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005

Log Text: Travelling along the Chemin des Megalithes, to the west of the Mané Braz dolmens, are to be seen several megaliths within the woods. These are the Kerjean menhirs, but I don’t have enough time to explore every single stone around here. This really is a cracking ride along this path. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Géants de Kerzerho

Trip No.203  Entry No.405  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Coming along the Chemin des Megalithes from the east, the first thing you see is a large menhir, more than 4 metres tall, at the side of the path, with a couple of smaller stones fallen beside it. Then you notice the fallen giant of the Pierre des Sacrifices, 6 metres long and nicely smoothed, upon which I sat writing this.

Then you see a path going behind this, which opens up through the undergrowth to reveal the whole row of Giants. It would seem that the two massive stones at this northern end of the row are not on the same line. Could they have been from a second row of alignements ? This was another pleasant surprise.

Further along are the real giants. Two standing and two fallen, more than six metres tall I would think. It looks like one of the flat fallen stones may have been used as a dolmen with a chamber underneath it. Perhaps they are not fallen giants. Maybe this is the true Pierre des Sacrifices. Whatever this all is here, its a wonderful place.

I must have been having too much fun and am being punished. I am feeling the start of gout coming on and I don't have any tablets with me. And when I get back to my bike I find I have a puncture. ARSE. Mend the puncture at the Kerzerho Alignements.

La Table du Sacrifice

Trip No.203  Entry No.406  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Pretty much in the middle of the Géants de Kerzerho are two fallen giants, more than six metres long. It looks like one of the flat fallen stones may have been used as a dolmen with a chamber underneath it.

Perhaps they are not fallen giants. Maybe this is the true Pierre des Sacrifices. Maybe it was a fallen giant then used in later times for other purposes.

Whatever this all is here, its a wonderful place.

Mané Braz tumulus

Trip No.203  Entry No.401  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: I am surprised yet again. Up on a hilltop a few hundred metres from the Chemin des Megalithes trackway (use off road bike) is signposted Mané Braz, up a little footpath.

The first thing you see is a lot of stones, which upon inspection are a double transepted passage grave similar to Mané Groh dolmen. The main passage is about 7 metres long facing south east, and has 4 chambers at the northwestern end, which are about 2 m by 1.5 m each. Most of the capstones are in place, except for the largest central one at the junction of all the chambers. The main entrance is a bit low, and a crawl to get through, but entry is easily possible through the end of one of the side chambers. Terrific.

A bit further up the hill from Mané Braz dolmen 1 can be seen more stones. This is a more straightforward passage grave dolmen, with a 3 metre by 2.5 metre chamber covered with a large slab, and an entrance passageway curving off towards the south, about 5 metres long. The first capstone to the passage is still in place.

Just next to the Mané Braz dolmen 2 at the top of the hill, are two more, smaller passage graves, each with curving passages about 6 metres long, and smaller slab sided chambers. The third grave still has a couple of capstones on an extension to the original oval chamber, but they are very low. The fourth grave is an oval slab sided chamber and curving entrance, but it has no remaining cover stones at all. It is very low, only about 30 cm in depth.

Surrounding the area are several standing stones. I can only assume that these are various rebuilds of newer larger burial chambers as the years went on, the bigger newer versions getting progressively further east. I may well be wrong of course. I wonder if it was all in one big mound at some point. But what a fantastic place, Do come here.

La Chaise de César

Trip No.203  Entry No.400  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Travelling along the Chemin des Megalithes, I was wondering what would surprise me next, and the first thing I come to along this path has done it already. What on Earth is this ? Loads of big stones in a wood just off the track.

At first it looked like another rectangle, but then I saw more stones. And more. And More. Some of them are quite big and well over 3 metres tall. Some are lined up, perhaps about 10 rows, with the biggest stone in each row lined up perpendicular to each other, making a massive checkerboard formation. But they are not all in straight lines. It is wonderful, I think I could spend hours here, but its already 6:00pm and I am getting further away, and not nearer to the van! Must get on.

The Chaise de César is no doubt the large chair like menhir at the end of one of the rows. I couldnt get up there to have a sit down - its too high for me alone. I have just had a look at the maps, and none of this is marked on there.

Coet-ar-Bei

Trip No.203  Entry No.399  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Travelling along the Chemin des Megalithes, I was wondering what would surprise me next, and the first thing I come to along this path has done it already. What on Earth is this ? Loads of big stones in a wood just off the track. At first it looked like another rectangle, but then I saw more stones. And more. And More.

Some of them are quite big and well over 3 metres tall. Some are lined up, perhaps about 10 rows, with the biggest stone in each row lined up perpendicular to each other, making a massive checkerboard formation. But they are not all in straight lines.

It is wonderful, I think I could spend hours here, but its already 6:00pm and I am getting further away, and not nearer to the van! Must get on. The Chaise de César is no doubt the large chair like menhir at the end of one of the rows. I couldn't get up there to have a sit down - its too high for me alone. I have just had a look at the maps, and none of this is marked on there.

Mané-Groh Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.398  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Now this is more like it. Signposted and kept tidy in a pleasant forest glade with a nearby carpark, this tomb is found a few hundred metres to the northeast of Crucuno village. It is a large transepted dolmen with a central entry corridor 7 metres long, and two pairs of side chambers, each being about 1.5 metres by 2 metres, at the rear, western end. Each of the side chambers, and the entry passageway is covered, but unfortunately the large capstones over the main chamber between the sides have gone. It is still on the remains of quite a substantial mound, and has been built on top of an earlier, smaller chamber, another of which can be seen just 20 metres further behind the big dolmen.

This is right at the start point for a signposted "Megalithic walk" so I have decided that I will now follow this trackway on my bike. My first notebook is now full up, and my camera memory card also. Thankfully I was expecting this to happen, and have both another notebook and picture card with me in my bag. Signing off from book 1, and its over to book 2, which is unfortunately not in a ring binding form.

Crucuno Cromlech

Trip No.203  Entry No.397  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Stone Circle Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: What a lovely and unexpected find this was, not so much the expected semi-circular cromlech, but an almost complete rectangle of large stones. There are 22 remaining stones, on average 2 metres in height, arranged in a rectangle measuring about 33 metres by 25 metres. The long sides are aligned just about due east - west, with the shorter sides north - south.

It has been "restored" in 1882, but is supposedly a very accurate restoration job, and matches earlier plans well. It is thought that this could have been set up for astronomical observations, as not only do the east - west sides align to the equinox sunrise and sunset, but perhaps more importantly, the diagonals align to the both the solstice sunrise and sunset positions, rather like the four station stones at stonehenge. It has also been suggested that the positions of various major moon rise and moonset positions are indicated.

It is easy enough to find, a few hundred metres to the east of the village centre. From here follow the track which passes in front of the house with the dolmen for a few hundred metres, then turn right when the track splits for another 50 metres, and you arrive at the field within which the monument resides.

Thankfully, when I visited, the whole field had recently been cleared of all the gorse and brambles, and was nicely open. Remarkably, for somewhere so close to the busy Crucuno dolmen, and possibly such an important site, hardly anybody seems to know its here, and it seems all the tourists visit the dolmen, but miss this. I dont cease to be amazed by all the Breton megalithic sites, it truly is a wonderland - whatever will be next.

Crucuno Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.396  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Right in the middle of Crucuno hamlet is to be found this tremendous and much visited and photographed dolmen. The rectangular chamber is about 4 metres by 3.5 metres, covered by a single massive capstone which measures over 7 metres in length, perched on top of 9 support stones, with easily enough room to stand upright inside.

Unfortunately, a century or so ago, a house was built right next to it, and this has destroyed all but the last pair of entrance passageway uprights and their capstone. This passageway was recorded in the last century as being at least 20 metres in length, leading away towards the southeast.

In its past, it has been used for many things, including a stable, a home for the village idiot (*Burl) and a shelter for German soldiers during the last war. Despite seeing lots of pictures of this one before visiting, and there being a steady stream of visitors passing through (its obviously one of the sites on all the tourist trails) it was much more impressive than I was expecting. Excellent.

Tennad-er-Menguen Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.395  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Back to the overgrown sites again ! This one is down a lane then across a field before finding it in the undergrowth. Probably once upon a time this was quite a good dolmen with an entry passageway, there is a 3 metre diameter chamber with capstone, and a few stones of the entrance still standing, along with at least one capstone surviving.