La Table Submergée

Trip No.203  Entry No.292  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 8th Jun 2005

Log Text: Out in the sea and mudflats, a kilometre or two off from the northeastern coast of Ile Noirmoutier, is a dolmen which can be seen at low tide. I reckon I can see it through my binoculars, there's a very table like rock out there, and nothing else to be seen. There is a boat moored nearby, probably fishing.

La Pierre Le Matz

Trip No.203  Entry No.293  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This is a nice shaped menhir, about 4 metres tall. It is signposted up the D.5 road north of Chauvé, and in a little fenced off area.

Platennes Menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.294  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: A bit further on past the Pierre Le Matz up the D.5 road north of Chauvé, these menhirs are signposted on the right. It is hard to tell exactly what was once here, but it was probably pretty impressive. The first thing you see is a lot oof broken stones, which was once a menhir which has been toppled and broken into many pieces. Then just the other side of the lane are seen three more menhirs in a row, now all fallen, and facing towards the broken one. All would have been 4 metres high or thereabouts, and it is possible that there was once several more here.

Chevanou Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.295  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Still further north up the D.5 road from Chauvé, is he Chevanou menhir, right by the roadside. This one is quite famous for its bottle shape, but this is only apparent in one view, from edge on. The stone is over 4 metres high and 3 metres wide, and from this view it is more sharks fin shaped than bottle shaped in profile. Just beside it is another large stone. A fallen menhir companion maybe ? Its hard to say for sure.

Le Riverais 1

Trip No.203  Entry No.296  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Just beside the road in the hamlet of Riverais, to the west of St-Père-en-Retz, can be found this menhir beside a farmyard entrance. Its about 2.5 metres tall, but looks like the top has been broken off.

Megerie Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.297  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: This is a nearly 3 metres tall menhir, signposted down a little track at the hamlet of La Mégerie, in a field full of cows. It makes a strange hollow sound when I tapped it, perhaps its cracking apart, or perhaps its magic !

Les Pierres Blanches (Corsept)

Trip No.203  Entry No.298  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: At first I thought that there were three small menhirs here, not much more than a metre in height or fallen, but upon closer inspection (from a distance due to them being in a farmyard with a very active guard dog) it looked more like two menhirs and a pile of stone. There are perhaps others nearby.

Menhir dit la Pierre Bonde

Trip No.203  Entry No.299  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Couldn't find on 8th Jun 2005

Log Text: I found a signpost pointing down a track to this menhir, but could only park the campervan by blocking the lane. Following the track, it divided into three, and there was no indication which way to go to the menhir. I had a quick look along two of the possible directions, but I found no stone before I decided I had better move on. I have since found that the stone may be quite some distance walk along one of the tracks, but which one I still do not know.

La Haute Gedeliere Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.300  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 3

Log Text: I don’t think they want you to see this dolmen, although it is signposted from the road and again at the site. Firstly, I had to contend with a "Danger, Taureau" (danger, bull) sign, and then after this a couple of barbed wire fences. The dolmen is about half a kilometre across the second field, and in the end of a garden backing onto it, with masses of bushes and brambles guarding it. The poor remains are in a right old state, and seem to be used as a garden dump area, and regular bonfires are had amongst the stones. It was very hard to see what the remains may have looked like over the top of all the undergrowth.

Cassis Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.301  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: In the middle of a field of Barley, this large menhir is signposted from the village.

Pierre Pointue (Paimboeuf)

Trip No.203  Entry No.302  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: In the southeastern area of the town of Paimboeuf, amongst a housing estate, can be found a Rue de la menhir. Following this road from the main road, there is a right angled bend to the right, and a couple more older houses before you get to a building site for new houses. The menhir is somewhere down here, but well enough hidden that I couldnt find it. I asked an old gent who was out in his garden where the menhir was. He was delighted that I was there looking for it, and he showed me to a nearby house with a large wall around the garden, and pointed it out within the garden. He said he had complained to the Mairie several times about the new owner of the house building the wall, and hiding the menhir away from view, saying that as a historic monument it should be readily visible to all. It is about 1.6 metres tall, and can be seen over the top of the wall.

Menhir de Couëtcas

Trip No.203  Entry No.303  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Couldn't find on 8th Jun 2005

Log Text: At the village of Avrillac, near St-André-des-Eaux, is marked a dolmen and menhir on my maps. I parked my van and had a good look all around, including a 3 kilometre walk around various lanes, but I saw nothing, and there was nobody to ask. Whatever megalithic remains there might be here are either in somebodies garden, or hidden away out of sight in the large wooded area.

Having just crossed the Loire, I am now in Brittany, and I thought that finding these stones would get easier from now on, especially after the multitudes of signposted menhirs I had found this afternoon.

La Grée Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.304  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Couldn't find on 8th Jun 2005

Log Text: At the village of Avrillac, near St-André-des-Eaux, is marked a dolmen and menhir on my maps. I parked my van and had a good look all around, including a 3 kilometre walk around various lanes, but I saw nothing, and there was nobody to ask. Whatever megalithic remains there might be here are either in somebodies garden, or hidden away out of sight in the large wooded area. Having just crossed the Loire, I am now in Brittany, and I thought that finding these stones would get easier from now on, especially after the multitudes of signposted menjhirs I had found this afternoon.

Croix de Sandun Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.305  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Despite asking, this dolmen was a difficult one to find. I parked and walked up Rue de la Butte expecting to find it there, but all I found was a natural rock outcrop with a cross on top However, the dolmen remains are about 50 metres to the north of this hillock, well hidden in the undergrowth.

There is not much to see of what was once an Allee Couverte, just a couple of stones left standing. There is the backstone and one sidestone standing, with several other bits of stone laying about, and remains of the passageway can be determined within what is left of its mound.

Rocher Du Rohain

Trip No.203  Entry No.306  Date Added: 26th Apr 2020
Site Type: Rock Outcrop Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 8th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: I spent ages trying to find this, and in the end found what was a natural granite outcrop on a little mound, up a trackway round the back of some houses. It looked to me like a couple of stones have been moved and sculpted, and may be the remains of some form of burial monument. However, I later found out that the proper dolmen here is not at the rock outcrop, but somewhere to the northwest of it. I went back in the morning for another look, but still found nothing. It must be well hidden in amongst the very dense gorse and bramble ridden undergrowth somewhere.

Keralio Croix Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.307  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: This is a tall thin menhir sculpted into a cross, mounted on a nice flower filled pedestal on the village green at Keralio. The stone is probably about 2.5 metres tall, and obviously well looked after.

Kerdanestre Menhir Christianisé

Trip No.203  Entry No.308  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This is a smallish menhir which has been sculpted into a cross and mounted on a pedestal at an ancient road junction. The stone is about 1.5 metres tall above the pedestal, and sparkles beautifully in the sunshine. It looks to have probably been recently restored.

La Pierre Blanche (Kerbourg)

Trip No.203  Entry No.309  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 2

Log Text: They really don’t want people looking at their megaliths around here. There are no signs, nowhere to stop, and everything overgrown and behind double barbed wire fences, with hedges and brambles growing in between them. The menhir can be seen from the roadside across the far side of a field, but there seems to be no way to get near it.

Kerbourg Dolmen 1

Trip No.203  Entry No.310  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This is what looks like a little allée-couverte, and is actually signposted and with a little clearing around it for visits. It is to be found just behind the Moulin a Fée, a prototype wind generator built inside an old windmill, and looking just like an old windmill except with a modern whirring sound rather than the old style noises which would be expected.

The chamber is about 6 metres long by 1 metre wide, and faces southeast at 125°. There are 4 capstones in place, sitting on top of many sidestones. Closer inspection shows it to have an oval chamber, 2.5 m by 2.0 m at the end of a curving entrance corridor. Is it a bad restoration job, or is it some intermediate stage between a dolmen a couloir and an allée-couverte ?

I was expecting to find two megalithic burial monuments here, but look as much as i could, I couldn't find another one, which is probably in the undergrowth in or around a wheatfield.

Kerbourg Dolmen 2

Trip No.203  Entry No.311  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Couldn't find on 9th Jun 2005

Log Text: I thought there was another dolmen to be found here and there is. Its just that I thought it was between the first dolmen and the windmill whereas it’s a bit further on down the road I was mixing the two up with their positions on the map. Damnabbit.