Kerivin Dolmen

Trip No.187  Entry No.92  Date Added: 29th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 11th Sep 1987. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Cycling camping trip round Brittany day 12. Cycle from Huelgoat, across the Monts Arrée in the pouring rain to St Pol de Leon

Kerivin Dolmen

Trip No.216  Entry No.1  Date Added: 29th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 28th Jun 2016. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Not far off the busy road between Morlaix and Roscoff, this Tee shaped allee couvetre is becoming very overgrown, and its difficult to make anything out at all now. It is also not far from a field corner where people have decided to dumpstuff, so overall its not a winner. I seem to remember this from many years ago as being a good and interesting place to visit.

Kerivin Dolmen

Trip No.193  Entry No.32  Date Added: 13th Jul 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 1st Jun 1993

Log Text: Cycling camping trip of north Brittany, day 4. Primel, Barnenez, picnic by Morlaix river. Carantec, St Pol de Leon, Roscoff. Overnight ferry back to Plymouth.

Kerider stèle

Trip No.203  Entry No.537  Date Added: 29th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 22nd Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This is a nice tapered Iron Age stèle which can be found near the hamlet of Kerider, a few kilometres to the east of Plouescat. It is easy to find, just to the north of the D.10 road to St Pol-de-Léon near to the roundabout. It is about 2 metres tall, and nicely octagonal in section.

Kerhuen Dolmens

Trip No.203  Entry No.440  Date Added: 23rd May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 15th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: This is a nice find, pleasantly situated at the top of the hill on the village green, with a view over the Etel estuary and its oysterbeds. It's a dolmen with entry passageway, with an oval chamber about 4 metres by 3 metres. The capstone sits on several of the eight side slabs, but is no longer high enough to stand up in, having slipped down on one side. The remains of the passageway are only about 3 metres long, with one capstone surviving, but the road has cut through any more there may once have been. It faces about 140°. The weather is definitely clearing now.

Just 40 metres further up the village green to the south from the obvious dolmen, and hidden by a large oak tree, are the remains of another chamber. It was probably very similar to the northern one but now has no capstones at all, and the remains today are just an oval of slabs, with a couple of passage stones. Less than a hundred years ago, there were the remains of two more dolmens here, but which are now completely destroyed, their only remains now being slight depressions within the village green.

Kerherne-Bodunan dolmen

Trip No.204  Entry No.37  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 3

Log Text: This lovely monument is to be found in some lovely oak woodland high on top of a hill overlooking a stream. It is signposted from nearby, but there is nowhere really to park, and it’s a fair walk along a track and then up a woodland footpath.

The monument is a strange one, which uses a natural rock outcrop as its base. The first thing you reach is a massive chamber, 4 mtres long by 2.5 metres wide covered by a single massive slab. It would seem that the chamber has been made by splitting the rock outcrop and pushing some of it outwards, but leaving the top of the stone in place to act as its cover. The cover slab is 5.5 by 3.5 metres in size. To the north of this main chamber has been made a passage, running off for about 10 metres, and again using many natural rocks. A few cover stones are in place still, but most have fallen. Oddly it runs away from the large main chamber and I doubt the two would have originally connected on the inside. Perhaps its either two seperate chambers, or like the passage and antechamber in many other allée couvertes. Lovely, and well worth a visit.

Kerguntuil Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.557  Date Added: 3rd Jun 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 24th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: This is a large single chambered dolmen, easily found and signposted, and kept in a little fenced off area in a field. It has at times in the more recent past as both a stable and a house. The chamber is about 5 metres by 2 metres, and a good 2 metres in height, all covered with a single large capstone. Three large side supports remain, but the others have been broken up and made into large block walls around the chamber.

There is evidence of a fireplace with chimney, an oven, a doorway with hinges and windows, all created with the stones. Quite a desireable residence in its time, no doubt, and a pleasant and interesting place to visit nowadays. It is still partially below ground level, and much of its mound remains behind it, at the west side.

Kerguntuil Dolmen

Trip No.193  Entry No.10  Date Added: 13th Jul 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 30th May 1993

Log Text: Cycling camping trip of north Brittany, day 2. Tregastel, Ile Grande, Tel Star Satellite place. Snake! Lots of ancient stones.

Kerguntuil allée couverte

Trip No.203  Entry No.558  Date Added: 3rd Jun 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 24th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Just about 100 metres upslope from the Kergunteuil dolmen can be found its neighbouring allée couverte, also signposted and kept in a little area. This one again has been incorporated into a field wall at some time in the past, which has no doubt ensured its survival.

It is 8 metres in length, oriented at 070° and has 4 capstones covering the 1.5 metre wide, 1 metre high chamber. The entrance is at the northwest end in the side, but I am not sure if this is the original. Inside the chamber are a few stones with engravings on them, one being particularly spectacular in the middle of the northern side. On it is a row of 6 pairs of outstanding spheres, most of which have a U shape carved beneath them, and which are interpreted as pairs of breasts. There is also another pair higher up. Several "palette" shapes are also carved, and several other symbols. The stone adjacent has a sort of crescent on it. A boat perhaps ? This is an excellent place to visit.

Kerguntuil allée couverte

Trip No.193  Entry No.11  Date Added: 13th Jul 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 30th May 1993

Log Text: Cycling camping trip of north Brittany, day 2. Tregastel, Ile Grande, Tel Star Satellite place. Snake! Lots of ancient stones.

Kerguerhan Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.442  Date Added: 23rd May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 15th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This is a pleasant little dolmen sitting in a green area on the outskirts of the village of St Cado near Belz. It has a 3m by 2.5m oval chamber with its capstone still in place, and the first couple of rows of its entrance corridor with a capstone on top of them. Access to it would be possible by car, but my camper van wouldnt fit between the houses and round the corner, so it was a 600 metre walk from the village centre for me.

Kergonfalz Tumulus

Trip No.204  Entry No.35  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: To the west of Bigan, and signposted from there, can be found this dolmen almost completely still within its large mound, just over the road from the easily found allée couverte. The mound must be about 25 metres in diameter, and up to 5 metres high within woodland. The rectangular chamber is about 3 metres by 2 metres, and covered by a single capstone. The entry passageway to the chamber, although now completely fallen and dug into, comes off the chamber and exits to the outside at the east after turning through almost a right angle, a bit like a small version of the Bono tumulus.

Kergonfalz allée couverte

Trip No.204  Entry No.34  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Just to the west of Bigan, and signposted from there, can be found the remains of this allée couverte right at a road junction. The allée is 9 metres long and oriented to the south, at a bearing of 185°. At the north end there is a closing slab and a little ante chamber behind that. One stone has been lost to the road. Three capstones are still in place, although fallen within the passage. It has been dated to about 2700-3000 BC.

Kergavat Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.408  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: Right beside the busy D.781 road just to the south of Plouharnel, can be found this dolmen. In fact, the road has cut through the entrance corridor. This would have been a fairly big standard dolmen with a 4 metre or 3 metre chamber with a corridor to the south east. The single capstone sits on several supports, but its hard to think of this as a good one, being cut by the road, adjacent to a house, overgrown with oats and underneath some powerlines.

Kergadiou Menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.500  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 20th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The two menhirs of Kergadiou are a fine place to visit, and fairly easily found in a field a couple of kilometres north of the Aber Ildut estuary. From these two giant menhirs, it is possible to see the Kerloas menhir when the modern trees are not in leaf, and the sightline over the Kerloas menhir is perpendicular to the midsummer sunrise. Coincidence ?

Kergadiou menhir 1 is a really magnificent monster menhir, 8.8 metres tall, and the most beautifully and perfectly smoothed and shaped menhir there is. Just 80 metres away to the northeast is its neighbour, another king sized menhir which unfortunately is not standing upright, but leaning at a very shallow angle. It is perfectly smoothed into an extremely flat face on its upper surface, while the lower surface is still rough, which leads to conjecture that it has perhaps never stood, and is left here unfinished. An alternate viewpoint is that it stood as a rough stone, and fell while being pounded into its smoothed and flattened shape, perhaps in preparation for some carvings. This menhir is 11 metres in length, so would have probably stood to the same height as its neighbour.

What a tremendous place.

Kerfuens Dolmens

Trip No.203  Entry No.462  Date Added: 25th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 17th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Just a few hundred metres to the west of the sports centre can be found the remains of two more little dolmens sat inside small mounds, which are kept in a little cleared area for all to see.

As for the Kervadol dolmens, they are about ten metres from each other in an east to west sense, but open to face the north. The western one is in quite good condition, the eastern not so. The chambers are about 2 metres long, and 1 metre wide, with side slabs and around them what looks like a cairn of stones held in place with side slabs. Again, it is hard to tell whether these would have been in separate mounds, or one big one. I feel it is probably one mound with two additional parts.

I later found out that these are remains of a type of monument only found in this coastal part of southwest Brittany, and are compartmented dolmens, which had chambers with internal compartment slabs to break up the chamber into sections.

Kerelcun Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.551  Date Added: 2nd Jun 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 23rd Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Just off the D.764 road by the hamlet of Kerelcun can be found this nearly 5 metre tall, 3 metre wide menhir, standing in a little green area with a picnic table. It is signposted from the village and easy to find.

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.

Kercadoret Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.360  Date Added: 11th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This nice little dolmen stands proud at the edge of its field, well hidden behind a big hedge beside the D718 road a few kilometres to the north of Locmariaquer. Look carefully, and there is a pathway through the hedge and wooded area. The dolmen is about 2.5 by 2 metres, and the single capstone sits on top of 6 support stones.

Kercado Tumulus

Trip No.203  Entry No.387  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Fantastic. This is getting a bit eroded away now, and I think it needs some better protection from all the visitors it gets. The monument consists of a 25 metre diameter round cairn, completely enclosing a wonderful dolmen chamber which is about 3 metres by 2.5 metres, and 2.3 metres high, which is entered via a passageway which opens up from the east. The chamber is covered by a single large capstone, which does not rest directly on top of the sideslabs, but is raised above them by corbelled smaller stones, making it look like it is floating above the chamber. There are carvings on several side stones with chequerboard patterns, and a large carving of an axe on the roof.

On top of the mound is a menhir, and around the outside of the mound is a circle of stones, about 5 metres extra distance away from the mound, of which less than half now exist. A bit further away from the entrance is another menhir, about 1.5 metres tall.

This must be just about the most complete dolmenic chamber there is to be seen in the world today, and is a fantastic place to visit when quiet. It is €1 entry fee, payable into an honesty box in quiet times at the entrance shelter by the pizzeria. I met the Brazilian ladies again here, and also a retired Irish couple who were travelling for a few months in their camper van.