La Pierre Blanche (Trehiguier)

Trip No.203  Entry No.323  Date Added: 4th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 10th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Trehiguier menhir, or Pierre Blanche, is a large white quartz block found down Allée de Megalithe, and at the left just before the end of the road at a boatyard, or fish factory. It is about 2.5 metres high, and 1.5 metres square at the base.

About 10 metres away is a large grey slab with some holes, and many other stones. I dont know whether these other stones are the remains of anything ancient or not. It looks to me like it could be two fallen menhirs, or else a menhir and a tomb of some kind.

Menhir de Condé

Trip No.203  Entry No.320  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 4

Log Text: In the midst of an industrial estate, sandwiched between a quarry and France's equivalent of Middlesbrough, with all the chemical works beside the Loire estuary, and not to forget the nearby airport and motorway, this poor stone doesn’t seem to stand a chance. However, here it still is in a hayfield amongst all the noise. The stone is probably three and a bit metres tall, with the top almost certainly broken off.

Dolmen de la Barbière

Trip No.203  Entry No.318  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 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This dolmen appears in all the tourist literature, and is signposted for miles around, yet when you get there it is fenced off in private land, although in this case easy enough to access to nearby.

As with a few other dolmens around here, I struggled to identify just what it is the remains of. There are lots of big stones on a little hill top, with one large capstone sitting on three support stones nearest to the road, but there is much more. It is possible that it was once two dolmen chambers with entry corridors. The standing capstone is covering what would have been a 3 metre by 2 metre chamber with an entrance passage to the east, but the rest is too much of a jumble to determine properly.

Le Fuseau de la Madeleine

Trip No.203  Entry No.317  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 another one that, despite being signposted from the main road, and from several miles away, is inside a double fenced and ditched field, with no obvious access. It is a nice stone this, and must be about 5 metres high, with a possibly shaped outline, pointed at the top, and is covered in nice yellow lichens.

Roche Aux Loups

Trip No.203  Entry No.314  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: This dolmen is signposted from the main road, but when you get there down the farm track, its fenced off in a field with no access signs, but you get a good view across the field. It’s a simple dolmen with a capstone which looks to be precariously balanced on just two supports, although a view from further down the lane confirms there to be a third support stone.

Dolmen Du Riholo

Trip No.203  Entry No.313  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: This is a nice site, up on top of a mound surrounded by forest, although it was difficult to make out what exactly remains here. It seems to be a T shaped arrangement, perhaps an east west oriented chamber with an additional northern part ? I must try to look it up somewhere. Basically, what remains are lots of stones on top of a big mound, with one or two capstones still in place.

La Pierre De Len Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.312  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 4 Access 2

Log Text: This was a tricky one to find. Not only is it in the middle of a swamp, but the road leading towards it from St-Lyphard was closed for rebuilding work. However, I persevered, expecting to find a nice big stone. But after quite some walking along farm tracks and aacross boggy marshy swampland, it was in fact quite small. It must have sunk into the swamp, which is what happened to me when I got quite near to it, and ended up with soaking wet smelly feet.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 !

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.

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.