Pierre Couverte (Pontigné)

Trip No.204  Entry No.312  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Yes on 12th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This is a very pleasant find. It's well signposted from the village of Pontigné, a couple of kilometres to the west along the D.171 Rue Des Megalithes, and appears on the village plan with a photograph. This is most unusual in these parts where most are very hard, if not impossible to find. Once at the dolmen, its a 400 metre walk along a footpath through the forest from the road.

The dolmen itself is a very nice Angevin style allée couverte, sat in a little clearing in the forest and well tended by the local community. The main chamber is rectangular, 5 metres by 3 metres internal dimensions, not quite tall enough to stand upright in. There are two large capstones on top of two southern side slabs, one large northern one (and a gap), with one large backstone and the two closing front stones still nicely in place. The porchway entrance is still pretty much intact, and is 2.5 metres long by 1.5 metres wide, and still topped by its capstone. The chamber of course opens to the east, with a bearing of about 080°.

As is so often the case, it has suffered from graffitti and fires, with lots of broken bottles laying about. Such a shame.

Dolmen de Laurière

Trip No.204  Entry No.311  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: Probably what was under that tree and those bushes in the lump in the middle of the field where I was trying to find the menhir.

L'Aurière menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.310  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Couldn't find on 12th Aug 2005

Log Text: This menhir is by the little picnic area at the place where I was stopped from turning by another car going into there.

Dolmen du Moulin à Vent

Trip No.204  Entry No.309  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: I found the old windmill to the northeast of Broc, but saw no signs of any dolmen.

La Pierre Couverte de la Planche

Trip No.204  Entry No.308  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 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Just to the west of Broc, along the D.138 road towards Chigné, an after about 800 metres this dolmen can be seen in the middle of the field to the north. I went to Broc hoping for a map, but saw nothing, so was lucky to find this. The dolmen is left in a little unploughed area which has recently been cleared of undergrowth and bushes, but it is also unfortunately used for field clearance stones.

There is a single capstone, 2.5 metres roundish shape, sitting on top of a single long slab on the south side, and two side supports to the north. It is possibly the remains of an allée couverte. A pleasure to find this at the start of the day after a bad evening.

Amenon Dolmen

Trip No.204  Entry No.307  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Sarthe (72))
Visited: Yes on 11th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: The Amenon dolmen is fairly easy to find, along the little roadsouth of the river Loir between Vaas and La Chapelle-aux-Choux. Just after the little stream, the dolmen remains can be found up a trackway, and can be seen from the road. There is a little plaque explaining that it is the remains of an Angevin type Allee Couverte, which is a good thing as I would never have known that, as most of the dolmen has been destroyed in the past with having the trackway built right through it.

It was excavated in the 1970s and is now protected, but perhaps just a little too late ! The remains now are a single capstone sitting defiantly on two side supports about 1.5 metres apart, and lots of other stones in piles around it.

Dolmen dit Pierre Couverte de Vaas

Trip No.204  Entry No.306  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Sarthe (72))
Visited: Couldn't find on 11th Aug 2005

Log Text: I saw something that stated that this dolmen is supposedly on an island in the middle of the Loir river somewhere. I could find no sign for it, and it wasn't on my map, so didn’t try too hard. But there is marked on my maps a dolmen up in the forested hills to the north of the village, which is a fair old walk from anywhere.

Menhir des Ventes

Trip No.204  Entry No.305  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Sarthe (72))
Visited: Couldn't find on 11th Aug 2005

Log Text: Now I can see the ign 1:25,000 map, there is another menhir nearby, much nearer to the road about half a kilometre to the northwest of the Gobianne menhir.

Gobiane Menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.304  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Sarthe (72))
Visited: Yes on 11th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 2

Log Text: This was a difficult one to find. Halfway between the villages of Flée and Chahaignes is a track south from the D.255 road up to Gobianne farm. I parked and walked up the track for at least 800 metres, and eventually I saw the menhir in a field up on the hillside. The field is well ditched, fenced and hedged, and there was no way in. The best I got was a long distance photo.

Its a big menhir, I would estimate over 4 metres tall. When you know where it is, it can actually be seen from the road, up on the skyline to the south at the top of the hill. Nice.

Now I can see the ign 1:25,000 map, there is another menhir nearby, much nearer to the road about half a kilometre to the northwest of the Gobianne menhir.

Pierre Levée (La Grange)

Trip No.204  Entry No.303  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Centre:Indre-et-Loire (37))
Visited: Yes on 11th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This is a large upright slab, 3.5 metres high and 3 metres wide, in a field overlooking a stream. Beside it are a few more large slabs, but they don’t look like they have broken off the top, although it is possible. It's a lovely limestone sort of slab, and looks like holes have been drilled into it in places, perhaps in an attempt to break it up.

I only found this at the second attempt, along the track from near La Grange farm from the west, after completely failing to even find the track from the east by the railway bridge, as fishing ponds have been made all along the valley.

Dolmen de Marcilly

Trip No.204  Entry No.302  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Centre:Indre-et-Loire (37))
Visited: Yes on 11th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: This was not an easy dolmen to get to, as my campervan wouldn’t go under a low railway bridge, and hence I had a walk of over a kilometre. It's hard to explain, but once under the railway I just followed the field edges hoping to see something, and there it was, beyond a copse and a pond.

The dolmen is a fairly simple thing, with a single capstone sat on top of three support stones, making a rectangular chamber of 3m by 2.5m. Whether there was ever any more to it or not I don't know. It's all leaning a bit these days, and sat on a little mound. Nice. I thought I wouldn't get this one.

Dolmen de la Haute Barde

Trip No.204  Entry No.301  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Centre:Indre-et-Loire (37))
Visited: Couldn't find on 11th Aug 2005

Log Text: This dolmen is either in dense woodland, or else on private property for the large chateau, as I can find no sign of it anywhere.

Pierre du Pont-Champion

Trip No.204  Entry No.300  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Centre:Indre-et-Loire (37))
Visited: Yes on 11th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This three metre tall menhir lives in a field guarded by cows, just to the south of the busy D.766 road a few kilometres west of the village of Beaumont-la-Ronce. There is a parking area nearby, and its just 100 metres walk along the edge of the field to the menhir. There are several other large lumps of stone around.

La Grotte aux Fées

Trip No.204  Entry No.299  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Centre:Indre-et-Loire (37))
Visited: Yes on 11th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: This fine dolmen can be found just to the north of the village of Mettray. Follow the road beside the sports stadium along the railway line for about a kilometre, and it is in a bunch of trees across a field to the right, down a little track and with a parking area. It's a large monumentwith a main chamber about 10 metres long by4 metres wide, with three large capstones sitting on top of three side slabs each side, and a single large backstone. The central capstone is massive, and is almost 2 metres thick on the south side. The chamber faces almost due east at 095°, and there is one stone standing, and one fallen stone in place of what is most likely an Angevin porchway. At the back of the first set of stones, there is an internal stone dividing the chamber into two parts, as is often the case with these large chambers. It is a shame, but as is often the case with these nocely presented dolmens, it is much abused, and suffers from the usual collection of broken beer bottles, graffitti(lots of heavy metal stuff in this case) and bonfires, one of which has obviously been lit inside the entry chamber and made a horrible mess. Just what is up with these people ? Although the double ring of trees around the dolmen make for a nice shady area, they do prevent decent photographs from being taken.

Dolmen du Château de Pierrefitte

Trip No.204  Entry No.298  Date Added: 11th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Centre:Indre-et-Loire (37))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 10th Aug 2005

Log Text: It's difficult to get to see this dolmen, as it resides in the grounds of a big private chateau, and cannot be visited. However I was just able to catch a glimpse of it from the front gate of the house. It is in the parkland at the east side, with trees around it. It looks a nice tidy dolmen with capstone still in place.

Oppidum des Châteliers

Trip No.204  Entry No.297  Date Added: 11th Sep 2020
Site Type: Ancient Village or Settlement Country: France (Centre:Indre-et-Loire (37))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 10th Aug 2005

Log Text: Long inhabited and fortified hilltop above the river Loire at Amboise.

La Pierre Levée (Chapelle-Vendômoise)

Trip No.204  Entry No.296  Date Added: 11th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Centre:Loire-et-Cher (41))
Visited: Yes on 9th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Well, thank goodness I didn't totally give up earlier, and came to find this. What a nice find. This is signposted and in a nicely tended little area just south of the village of Chapelle-Vendômoise, just off the busy D.957 road to the northwest of the town of Blois. The road here is a very busy dual carriageway, but there is a little dolmen rest area, from where the dolmen itself is about a 100 metre walk, or alternatively you can drive almost right to it along a little side road.

This is a classic Angevin dolmen made using nice big limestone slabs, and is still almost complete. I do not know whether it has been restored or not, but I am tempted to think that it has. The main chamber is about 5 metres by 3 metres internal dimensions, and 1.3 metres high. Each side has two supports, and there is one large backstone, and it is topped with two large capstones. At the front end, facing to 085° is a classic Angevin porched entry with two stones at the front of the chamber, two entrance stones and a porch capstone, which is all very nicely proportioned. There is also a doorway blocking stone, which may once have had some sort of entry cutting.

There are two minor downsides to this place. Firstly the noise and traffic on the nearby road, and secondly the trees planted around it, making photographs difficult, although they provide some nice shade, and have no doubt protected the dolmen from the plough.

Gâts-Fleuris Dolmen

Trip No.204  Entry No.295  Date Added: 11th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Centre:Loire-et-Cher (41))
Visited: Yes on 9th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Just to the side of Rue des Dolmens, to the north of the village of Huisseau-en-Beauce, can be found the remains of this dolmen or dolmens. Unfortunately it really is no more than a pile of stones at the roadside these days, although with the knowledge of what was once there, it is possible to make out the remains of two capstones still partly resting on their supports.

Apparently, in the 1920s, not only were the dolmens quite complete, but also still largely covered by their tumulus. All of the stones are of a flinty gravelly puddingstone, some of which is crumbling.

Hauts-de-Bretagne Polissoir

Trip No.204  Entry No.294  Date Added: 11th Sep 2020
Site Type: Polissoir Country: France (Centre:Loire-et-Cher (41))
Visited: Yes on 9th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Just outside the Hauts-de-Bretagne dolmen, at the northwest side, can be found a polissoir stone, with one groove, 5 basins and a flat area for polishing work. These are on a slab about one metre square. I do not know whether this slab was once part of the blown up dolmen or not.

Hauts-de-Bretagne Dolmen

Trip No.204  Entry No.293  Date Added: 11th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Centre:Loire-et-Cher (41))
Visited: Yes on 9th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: On a west facing slope in the middle of a field, a kilometre or so to the north of the village of Huisseau-en-Beauce, can be found the remains of this dolmen. It is reached by finding the Rue des Dolmens, and then a difficult kilometre walk along farmtracks, across streams and fields.

It was once an Angevin type dolmen with a 3.5 metre by 2 metre rectangular chamber, with its entrance porchway at the east. Unfortunately it was dynamited at the end of the 19th century, and so is not much more than a large pile of stones now. However, the basic ground plan can be made out.