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 !

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Revin Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.319  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 9th Jun 2005

Log Text: I found nowhere to stop near here on the horribly busy road with everyone rushing home from work in St Nazaire. However, I don’t let it beat me that easily, and eventually found somewhere to stop and wallk back to where the dolmen is marked on the map. Once I got there, I could see no way into the field, but could see lots of stones in a heap on top of a mound.

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.

Allée Couverte de Mauny

Trip No.202  Entry No.96  Date Added: 30th Mar 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Normandie:Seine-Maritime (76))
Visited: Yes on 4th May 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 3

Log Text: A much ruined allée couverte which can be found in woodland beside the D265 road as it climbs the hill from the riverbank below and to the east of Mauny. Almost lost in the woods and currently being used as a junk store it almost looks like its been bulldozed. There is however a very nice half porthole stone which can still be made out. The main chamber is probably about 10 metres long 1.5 metres wide and faces down the valley but most of the remaining stone slabs are just a jumble. Its very much in need of some TLC.

Le Wuy Menhir

Trip No.212  Entry No.17  Date Added: 30th Mar 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Normandie:Seine-Maritime (76))
Visited: Yes on 27th Dec 2012. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Described as a menhir, this site is the remains of a burial chamber of some sorts, which has been largely destroyed by agriculture. The remains I found consist of one large standing stone, about 2 m width and just over a metre in height. Its a lovely slab of sarsen like stone, which is all smooth on the southern face, but all lumpy and holed on the northern face, as sarsen often is. Beside this stone is another slab of sarsen flat to the ground.

I am sure this is not a menhir as described, but a remaining slab from a burial chamber of some sort, whether a side slab or end slab is not clear. It is possible that this stone is not in its original position, but has been moved here to help clear the fields for ploughing.

Perron Menhir

Trip No.202  Entry No.20  Date Added: 26th Mar 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Normandie:Orne (61))
Visited: Yes on 24th Apr 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: At least 3 metres high this menhir is found signposted about 30 metres from the road in a private garden although access to the stone is allowed up a driveway. There are at least two other large stones laying nearby and I wondered if one of these pieces was broken from the top of the menhir but the owner of the was in the garden and assured me that these had been put there as a garden feature by the previous owner.