Dolmen du Pech Laglayre 2

Trip No.203  Entry No.152  Date Added: 15th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Yes on 25th May 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: After passing various other inconclusive mounds I came across the third proper dolmen I found up here near to some woods and in the nice cool shade at the junction of a couple of track. This is what I call a proper dolmen with most of its mound disappeared for use in the nearby wall no doubt and so it is standing proud on the hillside. The chamber is about 3 metres long by 1.8 m wide and is oriented at about 130°. The capstone sits nicely on top at the usual jaunty angle due to a broken side slab on the south side.

Dolmen de Pech-Lapeyre

Trip No.203  Entry No.194  Date Added: 20th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Yes on 30th May 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Signposted as dolmens from the centre of the village of Limogne-en-Quercy, this dolmen is more than a kilometres walk along a trackway. The dolmen is still partly within its mound, and is notable for the thickness of its capstone, which is a rectangular 3 m by 2 m in size, but is a metre thick. The chamber is 2.5 metres by 1.5 metres in size, and opens to the southeast at 121°.

Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of rubbish here, with remains of fires, picnics and candles along with all the usual broken beer bottles.

Dolmen de Ferrières-Haut

Trip No.203  Entry No.196  Date Added: 20th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Yes on 31st May 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This is a very high dolmen which can be found a hundred or so metres south of the GR.65 footpath besides the farm of the same name. Unfortunately one of the side slabs has been broken by a tree growing through it, and it has been dry stone walled at the back end at some time in the past to act as a shelter. The chamber would have been 2 metres long by 1.8 metres wide, and it is a good 2 metres in height, facing 115°, with a 4 metre by 4 metre capstone.

Dolmen du Mas de Coti

Trip No.203  Entry No.197  Date Added: 20th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Yes on 31st May 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Sat in a field just beside the D.65 road to the northeast of the village of Varaire near to the Calvarie can be found the remains of this dolmen. It is 4 metres in length, by 1.5 metres wide and 1.5 metres high, with the long capstone broken into two pieces, facing eastwards at 074°. It has in the past been used as a shelter, and a bit of a wall has been built at the back, and the gap in the capstone covered over. As is often the case, there is a tree growing around it.

Dolmen de Peyco Levado

Trip No.203  Entry No.199  Date Added: 20th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Yes on 31st May 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Just to the south of the D.55 road between Beauregard and Laramière, and signposted, this dolmen is sat in a little clearing beside a trackway. Much larger than the average round here, this dolmen has a 6 metre by 4 metre capstone sitting on top of a 5 metre long chamber facing east at 100°. The dolmen still sits in the remains of its mound, which possibly still has some remains of a surrounding circle of stones. On top of the capstone, above the entrance to the chamber, there is a basin, or large cupule cut into the rock. The ambience of the place is spoiled by masses of plastic sheeting covered hay bales in the immediate vicinity.

Aubiac Dolmen 1

Trip No.203  Entry No.202  Date Added: 20th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Yes on 31st May 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Just beside the little road which runs off the D.19 to the north of St-Jean-de-Laur towards Les Cabranes, can be seen the remains of this dolmen. Three metres long, by 1.8 metres wide and 2 metres tall, the chamber has only one side slab, but is kept together with a drystone wall on the northern side. It has in the past been used as an animal shelter, and there are masses of ants everywhere.

Aubiac Dolmen 2

Trip No.203  Entry No.203  Date Added: 20th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Yes on 31st May 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Unmarked on any of my maps, but just at the junction of the D.19 and the little road which runs north towards Les Cabranes, can be seen a mound. Closer inspection shows it to have the remains of a reasonable dolmen chamber within it, 3.5 metres long, 1.2 metres wide and with a capstone covering only its eastern half. It makes me wonder just how many more dolmens and burial mounds like this there are around here.

Dolmen de Pech Linar

Trip No.203  Entry No.204  Date Added: 20th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Couldn't find on 31st May 2005

Log Text: This dolmen marked on the ign 1:25000 map is a longish walk up to the top of a steep hill in a densely wooded area so on this very hot afternoon with lots of other possibilities to visit I didn’t bother to try and find it.

Driving from here down the little road to the Lot valley, a large Eagle suddenly swooped into the hedge at the side of the road in front of me, and emerged after a struggle carrying a 4 foot long snake. Still struggling with the snake, it flew off down the valley, struggling to get aloft, with the snake wrigglng about. What a tremendous sight, I felt really privileged to see this. A real David Attenborough moment.

Marsigalliet Dolmen 1

Trip No.203  Entry No.200  Date Added: 20th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Yes on 31st May 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This dolmen is found a couple of kilometres to the northwest of Laramière, along the GR.36 footpath, but which for this stretch is a driveable track. It is then a hundred or so metres walk into the forest, but signposted.

This is another much larger than average dolmen for round here, still mostly contained within its mound. Unfortunately, at some time in the past, the capstone and chamber ends have been broken and incorporated into a wall. The chamber is over 4 metres in length, 2 metres wide and 2 metres high, and faces substantially to the south of east, at 147°. The capstone was probably once nicely shaped, and 3.5 metres wide at the front end. There are other dolmens to be found in the woods around here.

Agranel Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.207  Date Added: 21st Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Couldn't find on 31st May 2005

Log Text: This dolmen marked on the ign 1:25000 map is at the top of a hill in a well fenced off area of scrubland with no obvious parking place so I didn’t bother too hard to try and find it.

Mas de Labat 1

Trip No.203  Entry No.208  Date Added: 21st Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Yes on 31st May 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Once the lane through Mas de Labat has been found this one is fairly easy to find as it is given away by the mound at the top of the hill amongst some scrubland in a field. Having said that it seems to be becoming very overgrown and indeed is not much more than a mound at the top of a hill now. At the centre of the mound a small 2 m by 0.7 m chamber can be seen between two side slabs visible amongst the bush. There was no sign of any capstone.

Mas de Labat 2

Trip No.203  Entry No.209  Date Added: 21st Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Yes on 31st May 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: This is an odd dolmen incorporated into a wall. The small entrance below the capstone opens up into a typical 3m by 15 m chamber. The capstone itself is piled high with stone. Its not an easy dolmen to find with lots of windy lanes to negotiate before getting anywhere near the place and after that it took a bit of searching around in scrubby area round the back of a house and across a couple of fields.

Dolmen de Cuzoul 1 (Lalbenque)

Trip No.203  Entry No.210  Date Added: 21st Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Couldn't find on 31st May 2005

Log Text: Near to the Balach farm a couple of kilometres south of Lalbenque along the D6 I could find no easy way through to this dolmen with the fields being electrically fenced to keep a herd of bullocks in and a barley crop growing in another field so I gave up after a reasonable try.

Dolmen de Cuzoul 2 (Lalbenque)

Trip No.203  Entry No.211  Date Added: 21st Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Couldn't find on 31st May 2005

Log Text: Near to the Balach farm a couple of kilometres south of Lalbenque along the D6 I could find no easy way through to this dolmen with the fields being electrically fenced to keep a herd of bullocks in and a barley crop growing in another field so I gave up after a reasonable try.

Dolmen de Cieurac

Trip No.205  Entry No.29  Date Added: 19th Oct 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Midi:Lot (46))
Visited: Couldn't find on 1st Sep 2005

Log Text: Just over the Dordogne river from the town of Souillac should be found this dolmen. There are no signposts to it, and its not on any of my maps, but it is mentioned in a book I have, and is supposedly to be found at a corner of the road in the woods at the top of the hill. However, the woods are very thick and dense, and the hillside very steep, so without any better information, there is no way I am going to find this one.

Peyre-Crabère

Trip No.205  Entry No.53  Date Added: 25th Oct 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Midi:Hautes-Pyrénées (65))
Visited: Yes on 6th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: Right beside the D.940 road as it enters the northern boundary of the town of Lourdes from Pau direction, can be found this large leaning menhir. It sits right at the corner of a little housing road, Rue Peyre-Crabère, and has a bus shelter and garden hedge for company on its other two sides. The stone is about 3 metres tall, and leans almost 30° from vertical. While I was stopped here, it was thundering, pouring with rain, and very busy with traffic.

La Croix-La Botte

Trip No.205  Entry No.49  Date Added: 21st Oct 2020
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: France (Midi:Hautes-Pyrénées (65))
Visited: Yes on 5th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: To the west of the village of La Barthe-sur-Neste, and southeast of Capvern, along the hilltop beside the D.938 road, is a row of tumulus mounds. Most are now obvious only because of the ferns and stuff left growing on them, but the northwestern end tumulus is very well formed, 12 metres in diameter, 2 metres high and with a large cross on top. The row extends for about 1 kilometre, and there were probably once many more mounds to be found here, now mostly ploughed out or destroyed by the road.

Aneran stone

Trip No.205  Entry No.63  Date Added: 25th Oct 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Midi:Hautes-Pyrénées (65))
Visited: Yes on 8th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Deep into the Louron valley, on the western side of the Col de Peyresourde in the high Pyrenees, is the tiny village of Aneran. In the tiny churchyard beside this small ancient church in this little Pyrenean village are several odds and ends of old stone, some carved into shapes and and with patterns on them.

I assume the prehistoric stone here is the dark grey cylindrical block, stood beside the wall at the corner of the church. Its about 1.2 metres tall, and approximately circular in section with about 30 cm diameter. It reminds me a bit of some of the iron age steles in Brittany. The church also has some fascinating carved stones built into its walls. An interesting little place.

Peyre Hicade de Payolle

Trip No.205  Entry No.61  Date Added: 25th Oct 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Midi:Hautes-Pyrénées (65))
Visited: Yes on 8th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: I spent hours looking for this, largely because walking around here in such a beautiful part of the world and the wonderful scenery is such a great pleasure. The stone is somewhere to the south of the Lac de Payolle, and its holiday complex. There is even a 2 hour circular walk signposted and named Peyre Hicade. But to properly find the stone takes a lot of doing, and it is not actually passed by the named walking trail !

To start with I wasn't totally sure that I found the real stone, but the one I found at least looks like a proper menhir, and not a natural fallen rock. It is just over 2 metres high although the top has broken off and lies at its foot, and by a trackway above the road at the furthest point from the lake on the Peyre Hicade walk, although the signposts for the path do not lead or point to the stone.

If following the road south from the lake, just after the road crosses a bridge, and then does an almost hairpin turn to the right, park and follow a trackway up the hill to the left, on the uphill side of the stream. If this is not the menhir, I do not know what is - it looks like an other picture I have seen.

Fontaine de Trois Seigneurs tumulus

Trip No.205  Entry No.50  Date Added: 25th Oct 2020
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: France (Midi:Hautes-Pyrénées (65))
Visited: Yes on 6th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: When at the Fontaine de Trois Seigneurs, instead of turning left towards the Pouey-Majou dolmen continue southwest for a few hundred yards along the farmtrack, and there is a large mound at the top of the hill. It can be clearly seen against the skyline while walking towards it from quite some distance off, all covered in bracken and scrub. Unfortunately, it has all been fenced off, so I couldnt get a closer look. It looks to be about 20 metres in diameter, by 3 metres high. The northwest side looks to have been recently cut away with earth moving equipment. In fact, it is in such a badly cared for state, that at first I assumed that it might be just a modern mound of earth, for some reason piled there by the farmer. But it is indeed an ancient burial mound, which is in desperate need of some proper care. It wouldn't be the only one of these large burial mounds round here to be destroyed in recent times, as one was ploughed out less than 10 years ago.