Cordon des Druides

Trip No.204  Entry No.329  Date Added: 16th Sep 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35))
Visited: Yes on 13th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: This long line of white quartz stones is easy to find in the Fougères Forest, north of the town. It is about 500 metres east of the big parking area at Chennedet crossroads along the D177 road, and has a sign and a few parking places nearby.

The row is about 250 metres long, and the white quartz blocks are spaced at about 3 metres apart. The row runs at an alignment of 233° / 053° or Southwest to Northeast. The largest stones are at the centre of the row, up to two metres in height, but most are much smaller. Apart from this long row, there are several other quartz blocks which seem to have once been a parallel row nearby.

Pierre du Trésor

Trip No.204  Entry No.328  Date Added: 16th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35))
Visited: Yes on 13th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Deep in the darkest depths of Fougères forest can be found the Pierre du Trésor. Its actually only about a 400 metre signposted walk from the big car park at the Chennedet crossing of the main D177 road north from Fougères, and the traffic on this busy road is only 100 metres away. My gps didnt stand a chance of picking up a signal, and my camera insisted on using its flash, even on this bright and sunny afternoon.

Its hard to tell exactly what these stones are the remains of. It could be a fairly large simple dolmen which has now collapsed. Normal ground level would be above the stones, and they are now seen within a pit which has been dug around them at some point, no doubt people looking for the treasure. What is probably a capstone is about 4.5 by 2.5 metres, and very irregularly shaped. It is possible to wriggle underneath it, if that should be your want.

Pierre Courcoulée (Landean)

Trip No.204  Entry No.327  Date Added: 16th Sep 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35))
Visited: Yes on 13th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: North of Fougères, in the forest, are several megalithic remains. The Pierre Courcoulée is towards the northwest of the forest and well signposted, it is just 200m from a big forest carpark and has its own circular walk which can be followed.

The dolmen is in a little clearing with signpost, and is the remains of a little allée couverte. The western end is fairly ruinous, but the east end is quite complete and has a closing stone. There are 7 metres of chamber remaining, with two large capstones covering most of it. As the eastern end is not the entry, I would think that this is a lateral entry chamber, with the entrance somewhere on the south side, like several of the other nearby Mayenne monuments. It is in the remains of a mound, and there is evidence for some of the stones of its peristalith still being in place.

Allée Couverte le Rocher Jacquot

Trip No.204  Entry No.326  Date Added: 16th Sep 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35))
Visited: Yes on 13th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: The remains of this monument can be found a few kilometres northwest of Fougères, along the D.17 road towards St-Germain-en-Cogles. It is signposted, but not very clearly, and there is a little trackway and fenced off area around it.

At first I thought it was the remains of a dolmen with entry corridor, but further investigation in the undergrowth suggested to me that it is the remains of a well damaged allée couverte. One capstone remains in place on top of some largish stones, with the sideslabs of a passageway leading off towards the east. It looks like there was perhaps another chamber nearby, indeed perhaps the whole thing was once several passageways and chambers within a single mound, of which traces around it survive.

La Roche Piquée (Baudouinais)

Trip No.204  Entry No.325  Date Added: 16th Sep 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35))
Visited: Yes on 13th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: A few kilometres to the west of the village of Livré-sur-Changeon, and a few kilometres to the south of the little town of St-Aubin-du-Cormier, near to the hamlet of Baudouinais can be seen this menhir marked on some of my maps as Pierre Piquée. It is signposted, and after a little walk along a farm track it can be seen across the fields. When I visited, the field was well fenced off, and full of cows, so I didn't get to visit the stone properly, but I would estimate it to be about 4 metres tall.

Roche-aux-Fées (Essé)

Trip No.210  Entry No.2  Date Added: 16th Sep 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35))
Visited: Yes on 3rd Jun 2010. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 5

Log Text: June 2010 visit to France to see my sister, and as usual I had my Dad with me. I had decided on a long detour to visit La Roche-aux-Fées, but before we came here, I had told him nothing about it, except to say we were going to visit somewhere special. He is well used to me taking him to old stones all over the place, often on wild goose chases in woods and across fields finding nothing. But not this time.

This monument is now presented quite differently to when I previously visited in 2005, with a large new car park and visitor centre in what would have been fields to the south. Unfortunately, the visitor centre was closed, being open at weekends and holidays only this time of year until July and August when it becomes daily. I have read that this centre is very good, and with a decent book and gift shop.

From the visitor centre, a pathway leads through a nicely landscaped area towards the monument itself, which is hidden behind trees and hedges, until you round the end of a hedge (with a large fallen stone at the corner), and then there it is, in all its splendor, viewed towards the wonderful portal entrance. Even on my second visit here, it is awe inspiring, especially the work on the portico, which is over 4500 years old and still completely level.

My Dad was well impressed too, and couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. “Oh My!, How can this be so big? What’s this for?” he asked. “It can’t be just to bury somebody in. All these separate room bits? Why? It’s a bit like the side chapels in a Cathedral”. Pretty much my thoughts exactly, and it is good to hear these things coming from somebody else with no prompting.

Somebody had made little piles of pebbles and other decorative bits and pieces placed at various places, which looked good. I am impressed by one of the massive capstones which seems to have been fitted exactly into a gap in the supporting side stones. This place is truly absolutely fantastic. I don’t have the words for it.

The new field around the monument has been splendidly done, and gives it the space it needs. Only two other people came to visit in the time we were here, a large improvement over my previous August Saturday visit. One downside are the various noticeboards now erected here, stating that cracks have been found in some of the stones, and people should be careful and not climb on the stones. I hope that there is no bad damage to the place. What would the Fairies think?

Roche-aux-Fées (Essé)

Trip No.204  Entry No.324  Date Added: 16th Sep 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35))
Visited: Yes on 13th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Small notes only for this very well known and popular site, which I was originally thinking of saving to be my last megalithic visit of my whole 6 month tour. First thoughts, Aaaaarrrrrgghhhh, it's busy. And you pay to get in. Aaaarrrgghhhhh. Never mind, I have to see it. I decided not to take my book with me and write much, I'll just go and have a look and take some photographs.

OK, it wasn't so bad as I first thought. After I had been here a while, most of the people had gone, and it was in fact free entry, but with a little shop and information shed you have to go through first. In fact, it's not a bad place at all. In actual fact, it's a truly fantastic place. It is really beautiful when not overrun by people.

It is a massive Angevin dolmen, 20 metres long by almost 5 metres wide and 2 metres high. The main chamber is divided into four sections by three internal upright slabs. The entrance porchway is about 3 metres long, and fronted by the most lovely portico, consisting of two uprights and a lintel of carefully worked and positioned stone. It is truly awesome. This is definitely one to visit - but try not to come when everyone else has !

Pierre de Richebourg

Trip No.204  Entry No.323  Date Added: 16th Sep 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35))
Visited: Yes on 13th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: I could initially find no evidence of this stone, looking for it from the east, and thought that it is probably somewhere in the fenced off woodland grounds of the big house on the top of the hill. Further investigation from the north, the D.41 road to Retiers, and I found a trackway which takes you to right besides it, and it is signposted.

The menhir is behind the fence, beside a pond. The stone is about 3 metres tall by 3 metres wide, and looks fairly much just like a big lump of rock. Very difficult to photograph, with not only the fence in the way, but also the dark from being within the woodland.

Champ Des Louères Menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.322  Date Added: 16th Sep 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 13th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Well signposted from the village of Saint-Aubin-Des-Châteaux, these lead to a parking area beside the sports centre, from where the menhir is a walk of a few hundred metres. It's a very big stone, 3.5 metres tall, 3 metres wide and over a metre thick, and it lives in a field beside the trackway. There are a couple of intriguing round holes/niches within it, but I don't know whether these are natural or have been cut.

Pierre-Fritte (Jumallene)

Trip No.204  Entry No.321  Date Added: 16th Sep 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Yes on 13th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: To the south of the village of Préviere along the D.6 road, and after a couple of kilometres is a signpost to Pierre Fritte. From there it's about 500 metres walk along the farm track, taking the left turn at the crossing of tracks. It's a very nice menhir, 5.2 metres tall and shaped so that it is flat on the eastern face and pointed at the top. It has also been Christianised or vandalised, according to your viewpoint, with a cross carved with an inscription, and a niche carved with a china virgin placed inside. Both of these alterations are on the menhirs flat face. An appalling bit of metal grill has been very crudely bolted over the niche, presumably to protect from vandalism the statue of the virgin. It's all a bit of a shame really, its completely spoiled what would have otherwise been a splendid menhir.

Blackquarries Hill

Date Added: 13th Sep 2020
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: England (Gloucestershire)
Visited: Yes on 14th Nov 2004. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: The remains of this long barrow can be seen in a field at the southern end of the ridge between Tyley Bottom and Ozleworth Bottom near Wotton-under-Edge. There is a track which is part of the Cotswold Way which runs round the hill and passes close to the barrow, but I could find no way in for a closer look, although the field was empty and being used by some people flying model aircraft. The barrow remains have been fenced off, and are becoming grown over. I could see a shadowy shape sticking out of the mound, which was probably an old tree stump, but just could have been a bit of old stone.

Blackquarries Hill

Date Added: 13th Sep 2020
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: England (Gloucestershire)
Visited: Yes on 13th Sep 2020. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Revisiting this part of the Cotswold Way, and the field around the long barrow has been opened up to the public with a stile, and an information board has been placed in front of the barrow. The fence and old tree stumps have been removed, although it is all still a very untidy heap!

Pierre a Sacrifice (Putifay)

Trip No.204  Entry No.320  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Polissoir Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Yes on 12th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Near to the dolmen de Putifaie, and right beside the road can be found this stone once thought to be a sacrificial stone. It's now known that the grooves and channels in the stone are the result of it being used to polish axes and other implements. I have to say that I couldn't see anything much in the way of polishing surfaces, the various shapes in the stone looked more natural to me. Perhaps the polishing grooves are under the tree roots etc which are growing on one side of the stone.

Dolmen de la Petifaie

Trip No.204  Entry No.319  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Couldn't find on 12th Aug 2005

Log Text: This is on private property in a dense woodland beside the road, and is well fenced off.

Maison des Fées (Miré)

Trip No.204  Entry No.318  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Yes on 12th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Just at the northern edge of the village of Miré, just off the main D.27 roadnorth, and beside a little side road can be found this dolmen. It's a tall dolmen with a single capstone covering a squarish chamber of about 3 metres dimension, and over 2 metres tall. With it being right at the side of the road, it cant be sure that it's not been altered at all, and there are some rather large gaps in the stones. There are 4 support stones, two of them being large slabs, the other two fairly slender.

Pierre Cesée

Trip No.204  Entry No.317  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Yes on 12th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Although it looks a bit difficult to get to, this dolmen is actually very easy to visit, either by driving down the little trackway to the parking area right by it (which is signposted from the road), or by walking along the path along the banks of the river Loir. Its about a kilometre to the west of Seiches-sur-le-Loir as the crow flies, but not so straight forward by vehicle. The dolmen sits on the flood plain of the river Loir, which is just 150 metres distant, and is in a tremendous little spot.

Unfortunately, as is nearly always the case, it has suffered from vandalism in the form of graffitti and fires. The dolmen is a large Angevine dolmen, with its main chamber a rectanglar 8 metres by 4 metres, oriented 075° and high enough to stand up in. The single massive capstone is now unfortunately cracked into two pieces, as is the massive side slab on the south side. The north side has two large stones, and there is the usual single backstone. The porchway entrance, as is often the case, is a bit damaged and destroyed, there being only one front stone to the chamber, and one standing entranceway stone. The other is laying broken nearby, and there is no capstone.

I was thinking of not even trying to find this, as it looks a bit out of the way. Very glad I did, all thanks, as is so often the case, to looking at the 1:25,000 maps in the local supermarket !

Molieres Dolmen

Trip No.204  Entry No.316  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Yes on 12th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This little dolmen can be found to the west of the village of Beauvau, which has a little map with the dolmen marked on it. When you find the track to the dolmen (beware, the village detail map is rotated from the full map!) there is a signpost pointing to it. Its then about a 500 metre walk, and at the top of the windblown hill, hiding under a tree in a field, and with a little wellhouse beside it.

The dolmen is pleasant, with a 4m by 2m chamber topped by a nicely eroded and bowled capstone, 5m by 3m. The present entry is probably not the original, but there because the backstone has fallen, which is at the northwest. The original entry was probably to the SE, but its hard to tell. Many other stones lay about, perhaps it was once much bigger.

Pierre du Coq polissoir

Trip No.204  Entry No.315  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Polissoir Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Yes on 12th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: It's hard to know exactly what to make of this site. Marked on the maps as a menhir, there are actually two stones standing upright, and beside them a large flat slab, with a few other bits and pieces laying around. The larger of the two standing stones is 3 metres tall and slab form, 2 metres wide and 0.5 m thick. The second stone, 2 m from it, is 1.8 metres high and is basically a large upward pointed lump, rectangular in section. Directly in this line, about 3 metres distant, is a large slab, 6m by 4m. This is possibly just naturally there, but it wouldnt surprise me if it was once the capstone of a dolmen - there are other stones around it which could have been supports.

One thing is for sure, and that is it is a polissoir stone, it has several grooves and a couple of basins in its southern top edge. These stones are fairly easily found, about 500 metres down a forest track into the Baugé forest, reached from a parking area near to a farm called Les Rochelettes, just to the northeast of the village of Echemire.

Pierre du Coq et la Poule

Trip No.204  Entry No.314  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Yes on 12th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: It's hard to know exactly what to make of this site. Marked on the maps as a menhir, there are actually two stones standing upright, and beside them a large flat slab, with a few other bits and pieces laying around.

The larger of the two standing stones is 3 metres tall and slab form, 2 metres wide and 0.5 m thick. The second stone, 2 m from it, is 1.8 metres high and is basically a large upward pointed lump, rectangular in section. Directly in this line, about 3 metres distant, is a large slab, 6m by 4m. This is possibly just naturally there, but it wouldnt surprise me if it was once the capstone of a dolmen - there are other stones around it which could have been supports. One thing is for sure, and that is it is a polissoir stone, it has several grooves and a couple of basins in its southern top edge.

These stones are fairly easily found, about 500 metres down a forest track into the Baugé forest, reached from a parking area near to a farm called Les Rochelettes, just to the northeast of the village of Echemire.

Baugé Polissoir

Trip No.204  Entry No.313  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Polissoir Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Yes on 12th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Right outside the front of the chateau, in the town square, can be found this nice polissoir stone, which was found in the forests to the east of the town, and is now proudly on display. The stone itself is a 2.5m by 1.5 m lump, and on the top surface are two large grooves, and many flat polishing surfaces. In fact, pretty much the whole stone is polished smooth. Excellent !