La Pierre de Lenay

Trip No.204  Entry No.100  Date Added: 20th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Couldn't find on 16th Jul 2005

Log Text: This menhir is supposedly right by the river Thouet at Lenay, and looked as if it would be easy to find. I looked, and looked again, but found nothing. Must be on private land.

Grande Pierre de la Prée de Thouars

Trip No.204  Entry No.101  Date Added: 20th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Couldn't find on 16th Jul 2005

Log Text: Supposedly near the river Thouet south of Lenay, and it looked easy to find from the map. I looked, but found nothing, despite walking for what seemed like miles. It must be behind the farm somewhere.

l'Accomodement Menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.102  Date Added: 20th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Couldn't find on 16th Jul 2005

Log Text: Somewhere between a new major road junction and a railway junction, in farmland. I tried, including driving round many farm tracks, but could find no signs of this at all.

l'Accomodement Menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.112  Date Added: 20th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Passing again, I tried again to find this menhir. This stone is actually right beside the railway cutting on the eastern side, just to the south of the new ring road, and visible from it. It is on the hilltop, but fallen - perhaps just put there when they were building the railway - who knows ? The stone is about 3 metres in length, but only a metre high. I think perhaps it is broken.

Dolmen de la Pierrelée

Trip No.204  Entry No.103  Date Added: 20th Jul 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Yes on 16th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Just to the south of Montsoreau, on the hills above the Loire valley can be found this strange dolmen. It was difficult to find and to park nearby, but its close to the Tete Loire cycle route, and signposted about 50 metres into a field under some trees. What's left of this Angevine dolmen is still within a mound, although how ancientthe mound is I wouldn't like to say. But the odd thing is that it has been lived in, and the inside has been rebuilt with stone blocks to allow a doorway and stairs down into it, which are not in the original entrance. It also has a fireplace and a chimney complete with pot, and a water trough. A most odd place.

Oratoire de St Guirec

Trip No.214  Entry No.19  Date Added: 23rd Jul 2020
Site Type: Ancient Temple Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 17th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Morning in Ploumenach with Dad, and take the time to walk all around the pink granite coast. It is superb in the morning sun. The Oratoire de St Guirec is situated on the beach named after St Guirec, the Welsh monk who landed here on his voyage from Britain in the 6th century, allegedly arriving in a stone trough pulled by angels. The original wooden statue has been replaced by one of stone, after becoming damaged by the local tradition for girls to stick a pin in its nose when they wanted to marry.

Rochers de Ploumanac'h

Trip No.214  Entry No.18  Date Added: 23rd Jul 2020
Site Type: Natural Stone / Erratic / Other Natural Feature Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 17th Apr 2014. My rating: Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Morning in Ploumenach with Dad, and take the time to walk all around the pink granite coast. It is superb in the morning sun. The headland north of Ploumanac'h is now a municipal park, and has the most spectacular coastline where the pink granite rocks tumble into the emerald blue sea. This headland abounds in strangely shaped rocks, many with names such as the tortoise, the witch, the Egyptian and a bottle. There is a beautiful signed footpath which runs all around this headland from the beach where the Oratoire de St Guirec is positioned, marking the place where the Welsh monk landed after his voyage from Britain in the 6th century, allegedly arriving in a stone trough pulled by angels.

Trémarche menhir

Trip No.214  Entry No.17  Date Added: 23rd Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 16th Apr 2014. My rating: Access 5

Log Text: Passed by in a front garden on the way to Ploumanach

Barnenez cairn #2

Trip No.214  Entry No.13  Date Added: 23rd Jul 2020
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 16th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Leaving the car in the main Barnenez car park, we walked the few hundred metres up to the top of the hill and then took the first trackway to the left (west) just before the first house. Between 50 and 100m along here, and a field to the south opens up from which gives views over the main Barnenez cairn site, with a few gaps in the hedges at the fence allowing decent views.

The northwestern side of this field is slightly raised, and all covered in impenetrable scrubland, which I assume is the remains of the cairn 2. Back to the top, and taking the path westwards into the next field, and a clear raised area is passed over, and looking at the ground, and along the edge of the ploughed field, the whole lot is made up of stones, mostly between 20 and 50 cm size, but some being much bigger. Perfect cairn material. A bit further round, and another splendid view of the main Barnenez cairn can be seen, side on from the northwestern side. Splendid.

Kerprigent Alignement de Menhirs

Trip No.214  Entry No.14  Date Added: 23rd Jul 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 16th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: After the disappointment of Barnenez being closed we still have quite a drive to the hotel in Ploumenach, so although no time for any out of the way stone visits, but should be able to fit a couple of quick visits in if not too far out of the way. A good look at the maps suggests a couple of places, the first of which seemed to be an old chapel despite its dolmen sign on the map, and this the second which looked easy enough to find, and indeed was.

In the grounds of Kerprigent Manoir, not far from the side of a small road through the woodlands to the northeast of the Manoir can be seen a quartz standing stone, just short of three metres tall. Find somewhere to park and wander into this delightful ancient woodland, and it is soon seen that the quartz menhir is not alone, being surrounded by a large number of other quartz stones. It initially looked as if these stones were in several lines, but to be honest they could be randomly positioned, and lines are always going to appear. The main menhir was probably once much larger, as it looked as if the many surrounding stones were probably broken from its top.

On this hot April afternoon, it was lovely to be in the calm and shade amongst these ancient trees, just about to spring into life, and with masses of birdsong all around. As is the normal case, these quartz stones seem to keep very cool. A lovely place to spend some time.

Toul an Lann menhir

Trip No.214  Entry No.15  Date Added: 23rd Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 16th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: A nice slender four metre tall menhir in a field just to the north of the busy D.786 just north of Lannion.

Lann Ar Peulven menhir

Trip No.214  Entry No.16  Date Added: 23rd Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Couldn't find on 16th Apr 2014

Log Text: A five metre tall menhir which should be found in the forest to the west of the D.88 to the north of Lannion, however I could not find a way to get to it.

Diévet Dolmen

Trip No.214  Entry No.3  Date Added: 23rd Jul 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 16th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Now completely surrounded by cultivated fields, the remains of this allée couvert are easily found to the west of the hamlet of Diévet. What remains are two parallel rows of orthostats (12 in total), between 10 and 11 metres in length by 1.5 metres wide, and with a single large coverstone remaining in the middle.

Menoignon menhir

Trip No.214  Entry No.4  Date Added: 23rd Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 16th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Absolutely splendid menhir which is easily found near to a corner in a little open farmland lane, just behind a little scrubland area. The menhir must be about 8 metres in height, of large girth at the bottom, slowly tapering up to a pointed top. The southeastern face of the menhir has been worked into an extremely flat surface, of triangular shape, something which clearly took a lot of time to produce. One can only speculate at what this was used for, I have no doubt that it may well have been painted on.

The locality of the stone is a bit marshy, and perhaps there is a spring nearby, underneath some of the wooded glades. Not far away to the east (~20 metres) is another large stone, which looks fairly natural, but I have no doubt it has some relation to the menhir.

La Pierre-Folle allée couverte

Trip No.204  Entry No.104  Date Added: 3rd Aug 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Poitou:Vienne (86))
Visited: Couldn't find on 17th Jul 2005

Log Text: To the north of Bournand, but in a very vaguely marked place on my map, is marked the Pierre Folle allée couverte. In the village of Bournand, there is a sign pointing to the Pierre Folle, but as is often the case, there are no more signs later, and try as I might, without a detailed map I could not find this. After my failed visit, I found out that it is an 18 metre long allée couvert, on inaccessible private land within a Renaissance Lodge. It is said to be a superb megalithic monument.

Dolmen d'Epennes

Trip No.204  Entry No.105  Date Added: 3rd Aug 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Poitou:Vienne (86))
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: Not marked on any of my maps, but I found this mentioned from the same source that I found out the information about the nearby Pierre Folle. It is just to the east of the hamlet of Epennes, south of Bournand, about 300 metres from the road junction and across a field.

It looks to be a fairly standard 4 x 2.5 metre Angevine dolmen with its entrance to the south east, but it's all a bit of a wreck and overgrown. Unfortunately, the field it is in is cropped very close and damage looks to have been done by farm machinery recently.

La Roche Vernaise

Trip No.204  Entry No.106  Date Added: 3rd Aug 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Poitou:Vienne (86))
Visited: Couldn't find on 17th May 2005. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: On top of a hillock near a junction of lanes to the west of La Roche Vernaise is a big jumble of large stones. It is hard to know whether this is the actual dolmen, or just a load of field clearance stones, but it was the only likely candidate I found in this area. Perhaps it has all been fairly recently all moved to the edges of the fields. There is a lot of stone, so perhaps it was a fairly big dolmen, at least 10 metres in length. It is difficult to know. I don't think I actually found the real dolmen, which is perhaps a bit to the north of here.

La Pierre Crapaud

Trip No.204  Entry No.107  Date Added: 3rd Aug 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Poitou:Vienne (86))
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: This dolmen can be found a few hundred metres down a track to the south west of the village of Trois-Moutiers, where it resides just inside a field which was full of sunflowers when I visited, which meant that i could not get right to the dolmen. What I could see is a large capstone sat on top of some sort of support stones at one end, and the ground at the other.

Vaon Dolmen

Trip No.204  Entry No.108  Date Added: 3rd Aug 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Poitou:Vienne (86))
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This nice dolmen can be found about a kilometre southeast of the village of Trois-Moutiers, and is easy to find because it is signposted. It is about a 300 metre walk from where you can park near to a barn. It is a fairly complete Angevin dolmen with a 5m by 2.5m main chamber fronted at the east end by a 2.5 by 1.5 metre entrance porch. The two capstones of the main chamber are still in place, although the roofstone of the entrance has fallen. Nicely shaded by a large tree, there was a wasp nest inside when I was here, which distracted slightly from my visit.

Dolmen de la Fontaine au Son 1

Trip No.204  Entry No.109  Date Added: 3rd Aug 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Poitou:Vienne (86))
Visited: Yes on 17th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: There are two dolmens here, about 30 metres apart, near to the Fontaines de Son water treatment plant. The eastern dolmen is now fenced off, partly because of the water works, but probably also because it looks to be in a dangerous state, It is an Angevin dolmen with a 4m by 2.5 m chamber underneath a single capstone and its entrance to the east. Most of this is however now collapsed.