Le Petit Ménec

Trip No.203  Entry No.369  Date Added: 11th May 2020
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: This is a nice place to explore on a hot afternoon, a nice walk in a cool woodland filled with stones. There are hundreds of them to be seen, lined up through the woods, mostly less than a metre tall but some reach up to about 2 metres. There are round ones, pointy ones, square ones, thick ones, thin ones, indeed all shapes and sizes. Look a bit further into the woods away from the footpath and you'll find more stones.

The lines seem to get closer together, as does the spacing of the stones, the further east you go, but nothing seems very ordered or regular. From where I sit and have a contemplate, I can count 8 rows, but there are probably more hidden by trees or under walls.

Excellent. I later find out that there was once much more to be seen here, with the rows being destroyed and removed in order to build the Belle Ile lighthouse.

Le Quadrilatere

Trip No.203  Entry No.386  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This is a quadrilateral of stones in the forest to the north of the alignements. It initially looks to me like the outside peristalith from a long gone passage grave, but closer inspection shows it to be more than that.

As I am here, a party of horse riders ride right through, and then a bus tour of people, who all turn up, take a picture, and then move on elsewhere. While here I met a couple of Brazilian ladies who saw I was writing, and came up to ask me some questions. They are looking out the old stones, and were interested in what I was doing, and wanted to take my internet address. I should have got them to take a picture of me beside the Giant.

Dolmen de Run Mori

Trip No.203  Entry No.389  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Couldn't find on 13th Jun 2005

Log Text: I could not find this in dense gorse filled woodland, on a hill somewhere to the east of the lane leading to Nauterio.

Dolmen de Nauterio

Trip No.203  Entry No.390  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 3 Access 4

Log Text: This is a pleasant little dolmen, sadly becoming very overgrown, which can be found about 50 metres up the track which leads northwest beyond Nauterio towards Keriaval. It has a 2.5 by 2 metre chamber, with a 6 to 7 metre entrance passageway which has a couple of its capstones still in place.

The French Aeronavale are playing overhead in their Super Etendards.

Dolmen de Cosquer Er Mané

Trip No.203  Entry No.394  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 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: A pleasant little dolmen well presented on a sort of village green to the north of the chapel. This is almost certainly the remains of the back end of a passage grave with most of the entry corridor removed, although a few stones and a capstone still remain. The chamber is about 3 metres by 3 metres, with a single large capstone resting on top of several side supports. The back stone has gone.

Tennad-er-Menguen Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.395  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 3 Access 3

Log Text: Back to the overgrown sites again ! This one is down a lane then across a field before finding it in the undergrowth. Probably once upon a time this was quite a good dolmen with an entry passageway, there is a 3 metre diameter chamber with capstone, and a few stones of the entrance still standing, along with at least one capstone surviving.

Mané Braz menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.403  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Just the other side of the footpath to the Mané Braz dolmens, down the hill, is a line of large stones still standing, each about a metre high. There are many other stones. I have no idea what this may be. Maybe a wrecked tomb of some kind.

Kerjean Menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.404  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005

Log Text: Travelling along the Chemin des Megalithes, to the west of the Mané Braz dolmens, are to be seen several megaliths within the woods. These are the Kerjean menhirs, but I don’t have enough time to explore every single stone around here. This really is a cracking ride along this path. I can't recommend it highly enough.

La Table du Sacrifice

Trip No.203  Entry No.406  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 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Pretty much in the middle of the Géants de Kerzerho are two fallen giants, more than six metres long. It looks like one of the flat fallen stones may have been used as a dolmen with a chamber underneath it.

Perhaps they are not fallen giants. Maybe this is the true Pierre des Sacrifices. Maybe it was a fallen giant then used in later times for other purposes.

Whatever this all is here, its a wonderful place.

Kerzerho Alignements

Trip No.203  Entry No.407  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: It’s a pity about the busy road running through them, but they are here, looking superb in the sun and you can wander freely amongst them. However, I just want to get back now, having spent almost an hour fixing my bike. There is a Dutch couple here, the man spending ages taking photos with all sorts of kit. Three big bags worth. And wifey posing in front of the stones. These Dutch, eh ? There are a fantastic number of stones in the field here, some of them really lovely shapes.

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.

Carnac Musée de Préhistoire

Trip No.203  Entry No.413  Date Added: 21st May 2020
Site Type: Museum Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 14th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: There is lots of stuff in here, found at various places in the locality. Some good explanations of the various types of dolmen and tumulus to be found, and some lovely replicas of many of the engraved stones to be found. Seems like I have seen most of these now.

Mané-Kerioned Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.392  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 5 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This monument is in the process of being cleared of undergrowth at the time of my visit, so despite cutting and strimmers working around the place, I will get to see it. Perhaps the authorities are just starting on a major clear up of many of the ancient sites after years of neglect.

Much has been written about this place and the finds excavated here in the past, so I will not write much. This site has a collection of three passage graves, once all contained within a large oval mound, some of which still remains despite the road cutting right through it. Two of the passages are aligned north south, with the entrances at the south, while the other is situated between these, and aligned east west with its opening to the east.

The central and western chambers are now largely fully above ground, but the eastern chamber is almost completely still below ground level in what remains of the mound. Entry to this passage is down some modern stairs, and a torch is necessary to see the insides properly. Within this tomb, there are many finely carved stones, with unusual chequerboard designs on them, as well as some more standard serpents and axes, but unfortunately my camera seemed to be playing up again.

At various places surrounding the site are several menhirs remaining.

Mané-Groh Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.398  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 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Now this is more like it. Signposted and kept tidy in a pleasant forest glade with a nearby carpark, this tomb is found a few hundred metres to the northeast of Crucuno village. It is a large transepted dolmen with a central entry corridor 7 metres long, and two pairs of side chambers, each being about 1.5 metres by 2 metres, at the rear, western end. Each of the side chambers, and the entry passageway is covered, but unfortunately the large capstones over the main chamber between the sides have gone. It is still on the remains of quite a substantial mound, and has been built on top of an earlier, smaller chamber, another of which can be seen just 20 metres further behind the big dolmen.

This is right at the start point for a signposted "Megalithic walk" so I have decided that I will now follow this trackway on my bike. My first notebook is now full up, and my camera memory card also. Thankfully I was expecting this to happen, and have both another notebook and picture card with me in my bag. Signing off from book 1, and its over to book 2, which is unfortunately not in a ring binding form.

Coet-ar-Bei

Trip No.203  Entry No.399  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Travelling along the Chemin des Megalithes, I was wondering what would surprise me next, and the first thing I come to along this path has done it already. What on Earth is this ? Loads of big stones in a wood just off the track. At first it looked like another rectangle, but then I saw more stones. And more. And More.

Some of them are quite big and well over 3 metres tall. Some are lined up, perhaps about 10 rows, with the biggest stone in each row lined up perpendicular to each other, making a massive checkerboard formation. But they are not all in straight lines.

It is wonderful, I think I could spend hours here, but its already 6:00pm and I am getting further away, and not nearer to the van! Must get on. The Chaise de César is no doubt the large chair like menhir at the end of one of the rows. I couldn't get up there to have a sit down - its too high for me alone. I have just had a look at the maps, and none of this is marked on there.

La Chaise de César

Trip No.203  Entry No.400  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Travelling along the Chemin des Megalithes, I was wondering what would surprise me next, and the first thing I come to along this path has done it already. What on Earth is this ? Loads of big stones in a wood just off the track.

At first it looked like another rectangle, but then I saw more stones. And more. And More. Some of them are quite big and well over 3 metres tall. Some are lined up, perhaps about 10 rows, with the biggest stone in each row lined up perpendicular to each other, making a massive checkerboard formation. But they are not all in straight lines. It is wonderful, I think I could spend hours here, but its already 6:00pm and I am getting further away, and not nearer to the van! Must get on.

The Chaise de César is no doubt the large chair like menhir at the end of one of the rows. I couldnt get up there to have a sit down - its too high for me alone. I have just had a look at the maps, and none of this is marked on there.

Menhir de Goulvars

Trip No.203  Entry No.429  Date Added: 23rd May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 15th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: This massive menhir is now sadly fenced in behind the SNCF holiday complex near to Pointe du Conguel out at the tip of the Quiberon peninsular. It can be found by taking the road beside the SNCF complex until it reaches the grassland behind them, and then taking the trackway to the left. The menhir is hidden behind some large trees and a hedge, and it took me two visits before I found it, my previous visit having taken the wrong track. It really is a lovely stone, well over 5 metres tall and 2 metres in width, and it has been shaped and smoothed. Finding this was a good start to a grotty looking day.

Vieux-Moulin Alignement

Trip No.203  Entry No.433  Date Added: 23rd May 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 15th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This is a nice little row of 6 menhirs, up to 4 metres in height, standing on the slopes of a field just near to the busy D.781 Carnac to Erdeven road, just to the north of Plouharnel station. These are nicely shaped and positioned stones.

Kerzerho Alignements

Trip No.203  Entry No.435  Date Added: 23rd May 2020
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 15th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Such wonderful stones, I just had to stop and wander around them again.

Géants de Kerzerho

Trip No.203  Entry No.436  Date Added: 23rd May 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 15th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Fantastic.