Mousse Dolmen 1

Trip No.205  Entry No.110  Date Added: 9th Nov 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Languedoc:Hérault (34))
Visited: Couldn't find on 15th Sep 2005

Log Text: Taking the track further beyond the Grand dolmen de Lauriol, and after eight or nine hundred metres the first dolmen de Mousse is supposedly to be found, just to the left of the track. However, much of the land round here has been recently fenced off and I could find nothing obvious amongst the prickly scrub and undergrowth. Two hundred metres further, to the right and 40 metres from the track is a second then third dolmen. I had no chance of finding these, although I did find the dry limestone chasm known as the Combe des Mortes, named as such because of the numbers of dolmens here ! Almost anything in this broken limestone landscape could have been a dolmen at some time in the past, but it is extremely difficult to find a way about here other than the trackway because of the vicious scrub growing over everything. After an hour or so vain searching about I decided I could spend no more time here finding nothing, and decided to return to the van and move on.

Dolmen de Lauriol 3

Trip No.205  Entry No.109  Date Added: 9th Nov 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Languedoc:Hérault (34))
Visited: Couldn't find on 15th Sep 2005

Log Text: Nearby to the Grand dolmen de Lauriol are supposedly two more, smaller and more degraded dolmens. I had a good look around, but much of the land round here has been recently fenced off and I could find nothing obvious amongst the prickly scrub and undergrowth.

Dolmen de Lauriol 2

Trip No.205  Entry No.108  Date Added: 9th Nov 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Languedoc:Hérault (34))
Visited: Couldn't find on 15th Sep 2005

Log Text: Nearby to the Grand dolmen de Lauriol are supposedly two more, smaller and more degraded dolmens. I had a good look around, but much of the land round here has been recently fenced off and I could find nothing obvious amongst the prickly scrub and undergrowth.

Dolmen de Lauriol 1

Trip No.205  Entry No.107  Date Added: 9th Nov 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Languedoc:Hérault (34))
Visited: Yes on 15th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: From Siran, follow the signs to the Curiosité de L'Auriol, which takes you on a windy road north up onto the hills. The Curiosité is a weird bit of road where things seem to roll uphill - a trick of the eye over gravity. From here take the road left for half a kilometre to a big house (being done up in 2005) in amongst pine trees, and go beyond this to a track down to the left. Follow this track, and turn right at the junction with the trackway from the big house, then after a couple of hundred metres, the Grand dolmen de Lauriol is obvious at the left of the path.

Its a bit of a wreck, and becoming overgrown, but the 4m by 2m chamber, still within a mound of stones, is worth a look. The large capstone is now broken and fallen off to the side. This seems a good candidate for a bit of restoration. There are beautiful views from up here on the southern edge of the Montagne Noire.

Morrel das Fadas replica

Trip No.205  Entry No.105  Date Added: 9th Nov 2020
Site Type: Modern Stone Circle etc Country: France (Languedoc:Aude (11))
Visited: Yes on 15th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: A small representation of the dolmen des Fades has been built near the roundabout outside the campsite at Pepieux. Excellent.

Morrel das Fadas

Trip No.205  Entry No.106  Date Added: 9th Nov 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Languedoc:Aude (11))
Visited: Yes on 15th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Visited again to get some pictures in the bright morning sun, although the sun doesn’t make it through the trees.

Morrel das Fadas

Trip No.205  Entry No.104  Date Added: 9th Nov 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Languedoc:Aude (11))
Visited: Yes on 14th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Although within the commune of Pépieux, this tremendous dolmen is actually nearer and easier to find from the village of Siran, from where you take the D.12 road east for a kilometre or so, and the mound is on the right, on top of a large natural pine covered hill amongst the vines. It is all rather obvious, and has a little parking area and signpost.

By far the biggest dolmen structure in the south of France, I cannot say how much of the hillock it is built on is natural, and how much is its tumulus, but nevertheless, it is a big structure. The chamber itself is 24 metres in length and up to 4 metres wide, aligned towards the southeast at 145°. This chamber is divided into three sections by lovely partitioned portal stones. The back section is rectangular, 4.5 metres long and 4 metres wide. The marvellous central section is 6.5 metres long, with massive side slab walls 2,5 metres high, which carry the single remaining large capstone (about 5m by 3.5m) well above head height.

Unfortunately the portal stones each side of this central chamber are broken, but enough remains to get a good feel for what was once here, as one of the stones of the southeastern portal is almost complete. The 13 metres of entranceway is made with alternating slabs and dry stone walling, and narrows down to about 2 metres wide at the entrance. This really is a fantastic place to visit, but difficult to photograph because of its size and all the surrounding trees.

Allée Couverte de Saint-Eugène

Trip No.205  Entry No.103  Date Added: 9th Nov 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Languedoc:Aude (11))
Visited: Yes on 14th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: I have now twice found this only by luck. This time I took a wrong turning (one road too soon) and ended up on a stone track across private land where I could not turn round to go back out, and then I saw a little sign to dolmen, up the hillside I remember. I managed to park the van in a wider part of the track about 500 metres away, and went back on foot to look for the site. Quite how one is meant to get here properly, I do not know !

Up on top of a pine covered hill is an open flattish area, upon which is built this lovely tomb. It has all been much restored, so quite how much is original I do not know. The first thing you see is a circular stone wall containing a stone cairn, about a metre high and about 25 metres in diameter, with upright slabs every 5 metres or so around its circumference. Within this is the remains of a massive structure, and a partitioned chamber. The main chamber is 15 metres long, lined with large slabs, and opens to the southeast at 155°. At the back end it is 4 metres wide, and 5.5 m from the end is the remnants of a stone partition within which the remains of portal entranceway can be seen. The next section is 6 metres long, tapering to 2.5 metres wide, up to the remains of another partition with entranceway. This leaves just 3 metres of tapering corridor to the entrance in the circular wall, just 1 metre in width. Unfortunately there are no cover stones, and the entrance portals are very damaged, to the extent of being almost non existant. In the stone mound there can be seen the remains of two further intermediate circling walls, the first a U shape around the chamber, and the second a concentric circle within the outside wall.

Menhir dit la Pierre Droite (Villeneuve-Minervois)

Trip No.205  Entry No.102  Date Added: 9th Nov 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Languedoc:Aude (11))
Visited: Couldn't find on 14th Sep 2005

Log Text: I failed to find this stone on the way down the hill. It is supposedly about 1.5 kilometres from the village of Villeneuve-Minervois, at the side of the road.

Tombeau de Roland

Trip No.205  Entry No.101  Date Added: 9th Nov 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Languedoc:Aude (11))
Visited: Yes on 14th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Just up the hillside a bit from Dolmen de La Jagartière can be found the Tombeau de Roland. Once thought to be a megalithic tomb, the latest thoughts are that it is nothing more than a place from where a large rock has been quarried. But quite why somebody would come to such a place, far away from any buildings up a hillside, which has several other tombs nearby, I do not know. Surely a source of rock more convenient could have been found.

Roque Traoucado

Trip No.205  Entry No.99  Date Added: 9th Nov 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Languedoc:Aude (11))
Visited: Yes on 14th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: From the wine village of Villeneuve-Minervois, follow the little windy road northwards for about 4 kilometres into the hills towards Pujol-du-Bosc. This road up into the mountains is now a properly made up road, rather than the dirt track it was 6 years ago. Eventually you will find a parking area and a dolmen sign. Two little signposted walks are arranged, with all sorts of items of interest to see along the way, such as limestone ovens, shepherds huts, and many signs pointing out the various types of vegetation.

From the parking area take the short path to the left of the road, and you soon come to the remains of this dolmen, excavated in 1972. What you find is the remains of a round stone cairn, diameter about 18 metres and encircled by several large upright stones, with the remains of a chamber in the middle. The chamber is 4 metres in length, by 1 metre wide, and slab lined, but there are no capstones. There is an entry corridor, strangely oriented towards the southwest. Amongst items found here during the excavations were copper and bronze bracelets. Dating showed that the tomb was in use for a long time during the third millennium BC.

Dolmen de la Jagartière

Trip No.205  Entry No.100  Date Added: 9th Nov 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Languedoc:Aude (11))
Visited: Yes on 14th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: From the wine village of Villeneuve-Minervois, follow the little windy road northwards for about 4 kilometres into the hills towards Pujol-du-Bosc. This road up into the mountains is now a properly made up road, rather than the dirt track it was 6 years ago. Eventually you will find a parking area and a dolmen sign. Two little signposted walks are arranged, with all sorts of items of interest to see along the way, such as limestone ovens, shepherds huts, and many signs pointing out the various types of vegetation.

From the parking area, take the path to the right from the car park, and after a few hundred metres you will find this splendidly restored dolmen, sitting with wondrous views over the Minervois countryside and the Aude valley to the south. As I sit and write this, theres lots of shouting and horns blowing, is there a hunt on, or is it just shepherds moving their flocks ? The slab sided chamber, 3 metres by 2 metres, is covered with a single large capstone, and has an entry looking over the valley to the southeast at 160°. There is a small cairn surrounding the chamber, of which the excavations showed it to be of diameter only 8.5 metres, with an encircling circle of stones.

It really is superb up here! There's Canigou in the distance to the southeast, and the Meditterranean sea can be seen shimmering on the horizon.

Malves Menhir

Trip No.205  Entry No.98  Date Added: 9th Nov 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Languedoc:Aude (11))
Visited: Yes on 14th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This large menhir is to be found a few hundred metres outside the village of Malves-en-Minervois, taking the D.38 road westwards towards Villalier, and just across the river. There is a little parking area, and a signposted walk for about 100 metres to the stone. Just how could I have missed this when I came to look 5 years ago ?

The stone stands proudly on a higher bit of ground above a vineyard, with steps up to the field it is in. It is over 5 metres high (with apparently 4 metres more under the ground), 1.5 metres in width but less than half a metre thick. It was restored in the 1960s and looks to have been mended from three broken pieces, although its possible that the cement like substance is perhaps just filling cracks.

Oppidum de Pech de Maho

Trip No.205  Entry No.96  Date Added: 8th Nov 2020
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: France (Languedoc:Aude (11))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 14th Sep 2005

Log Text: A large hill, but I got distracted while trying to have a proper look, as there was a large accident being cleared up, and I couldn’t turn down the small road to have a close look.

Dolmen de la Madeleine d’Albesse

Trip No.205  Entry No.97  Date Added: 8th Nov 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Languedoc:Aude (11))
Visited: Yes on 14th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Walk just more than a kilometer southwest along the track along the top of the ridge from the bends in the D.3 road to the north of Monze. The dolmen can then be found in a bank to the left of the trackway, on top of the ridge.

I couldn’t be sure whether the dolmen was made on a natural ridge, or whether there is a large mound built around it, its probably a bit of both. The chamber itself is quite large, but a bit of a wreck these days. It looks to be a sort of V shaped chamber 6 metres in length and up to 3 metres wide and is open to the east at about 118°, which looks right along the valley below the ridge. Its quite a high chamber too, and there would be plenty of room to stand up within it. Unfortunately, although the sides are well defined, there is only one capstone, and this is dislodged to one side, near to the back of the chamber. A few metres to the east of the main chamber is a slab lined pit in the mound, about a metre square and the same deep. Whether this was another part of the original tomb or not, I cannot tell.

I have to say it was a pleasant walk along the ridge despite the intense heat, through lovely smelling pine and juniper scrub, with very pleasant views of rocky hills and vine rich valleys below. There is also lots of exotic insect life up here too, I disturbed a praying mantis at one point, which flew off in a flash of green. Just to the northwest of the dolmen and mound, it looks like there may well be another artificial mound, but this one is very overgrown and impossible to get onto to have a closer look.

Aqueduc d’Ansignan

Trip No.205  Entry No.95  Date Added: 7th Nov 2020
Site Type: Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry Country: France (Languedoc:Pyrénées-Orientales 66)
Visited: Yes on 13th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Ancient bridge and aqueduct spanning the river at the village of Ansignan, still used to irrigate crops on the opposite bank. It is built on the basis of a Roman bridge, probably from the 3rd century.

To cross the bridge, with the aqueduct built on top, you walk within an enclosed passage with a few holes for light, and it seems rather like walking along a passage within the walls of a castle.

Dolmen de la Rouyre

Trip No.205  Entry No.94  Date Added: 5th Nov 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Languedoc:Pyrénées-Orientales 66)
Visited: Yes on 13th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: High up on this mountain ridge between the villages of Fesluns and Ansignan in Pyrénées-Orientales can be found the remains of this cute little dolmen. I followed signs from Ansignan, but walked because I was not going to get the camper van up the steep, tiny, windy little roads, but a small car would get fairly close. I had no idea how far it was going to be to the dolmen, and perhaps wouldn't have started out had I known in advance. It turned out to be almost an hour brisk uphill walk before I made it to the dolmen.

It's a tiny little thing, just 2 metres in length by 1 metre wide, and a metre high. Two small capstones rest on 3 and 2 side supports, with a back stone and a half height stone at the front. There is evidence of a stone cairn, with encircling larger stones, about 8 metres in diameter. The chamber opens to the southwest at 240°, but perhaps this is the back. Maybe some of the chamber has disappeared, and it is possible that there was an entry corridor towards the southeast, but it is very hard to tell.

Was it worth the couple of hours of steep uphill walk for the visit? yes and no. The views were lovely once up here, and there were some beautiful butterflies to be seen in amongst the vines near the top of the ridge. Apart from driving to a closer position in a small car, it is possible that you could approach this dolmen from the west, which may also make it much easier to find.

Dolmen d'A Fourna

Trip No.205  Entry No.93  Date Added: 5th Nov 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Languedoc:Pyrénées-Orientales 66)
Visited: Yes on 13th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 3

Log Text: About four hundred metres from the Creu de la Llosa dolmen, following the footpath through the scrub to the southwest (note, go back down the track for about 25 metres from the dolmen to find the path - it is not the "obvious" path leading away from the dolmen), around the southern side of the ridge, and you will find another dolmen of similar type.

This dolmen, which again I assume restored, is slightly smaller, in a round cairn about 8 metres in diameter. The dolmen chamber is about 2 metres long by 1 metre wide, and covered with two small capstones, sitting on blocky side supports, only to about 1.2 metres in height. It has an entrance passageway, wider than the chamber, which is 4 metres long and opens up on an alignment of 120°, directly pointing towards a large and significant mountain peak. The capstones are both engraved, the front, larger one having multiple cupules with the faintest of some lines and cupules, while the smaller backstone has an extremely clear cross, with maybe some other, more fainter markings.

What a lovely place it is up here, pity the sky is cloudy and the views unclear. It also makes me wonder just how many more of these dolmens there are to be discovered in the forests up on these mountains.

Dolmen de Serrat d'en Jacques

Trip No.205  Entry No.92  Date Added: 5th Nov 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Languedoc:Pyrénées-Orientales 66)
Visited: Yes on 13th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 3

Log Text: A couple of hundred metres from the Creu de la Llosa dolmen, following the footpath uphill through the scrub to the east, up towards Serrat d'en Jacques, and you can find another dolmen, similar in size to the Creu de la Llosa dolmen, but this time with an entry passage through its cairn. I do not know the name of this dolmen, and I assume it has also been fairly recently restored.

The cairn is about 10 metres in diameter and surrounded by large slabs, with a height of about 0.5 metres. The dolmen, approximately central, has a chamber 3 metres long, and varying in width from about 1.8 m at the front to 1 m at the back. Again, the floor is paved, and there is a part height stone across the front. There are three side slabs each side, and a full height backstone. There were either several capstones, only one of which is now in position, or else a single large one has been broken. On top of the remains of the capstone are one or two cupules, but nothing much else in the way of engravings. To the southeast is an entrance chamber, facing 118°, paved and about 2.5 metres in length to the edge of the mound, making up to the full width of the chamber.

The views from this dolmen really are superb, but unfortunately slightly obscured by the highly scented scrubland. The Canigou is clearly visible to the southwest, but still enveloped in its clouds today. Excellent.

Dolmen de la Creu de Falibe

Trip No.205  Entry No.91  Date Added: 5th Nov 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Languedoc:Pyrénées-Orientales 66)
Visited: Yes on 13th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This lovely restored dolmen can be found in the hills to the south of the village of Saint-Michel-de-Llotes. Travelling south, turn left at the village beside the Catalane museum, over the bridge. Follow this road for several kilometres, twisting and turning up into the mountains, to the Col de la Croix de la Falibe. Its further than you would think, and you even start going downhill again before you get there, but once there its obvious, and has a sign to the dolmen along the large track to the left, with plenty of room to park. If you're feeling adventurous, it would be possible to drive along this stoney track, as I was walking along it a car did in fact pass me.

Go about a kilometre along the track, and at the top of the ridge you will fond the dolmen, contained within its circular cairn. The chamber is rectangular, 2.5 m by 1.5 , surrounded on all four sides by upright slabs. The capstone is supported on the two long sides by the side slabs, while at the ends the slabs do not reach the top. The chamber is paved, and has a single capstone on top, which is only 2.5 metres by 1.5 metres, just big enough to cover the chamber. The capstone is heavily carved, and has many cupules, lines and crosses engraved into the top. The crosses are made by joining between 4 small cupules. Some of the cupules are quite large, up to 10 cm in diameter, and these larger cupules are linked together with larger engraved lines, making a sort of fish shape around the capstone. The whole top of the capstone is carved, and is most intriguing. The dolmen itself is contained within the remains of a stone cairn, about 10 metres in diameter, and with large stone edging all the way round.

This is a lovely place to visit, well worth the time, and the views nearby, although not from the dolmen itself, are splendid.