Pierre Levée de Chenillée

Trip No.203  Entry No.254  Date Added: 23rd Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Vendée (85))
Visited: Yes on 5th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This is a nicely smoothed and shaped menhir, which must be about 4.5 metres tall, 2.5 metres wide and 1 metre thick. It is just off a farm track beside the road, and is signposted.

Pierre Levée de Bougon

Trip No.204  Entry No.147  Date Added: 17th Aug 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Poitou:Deux-Sèvres (79))
Visited: Couldn't find on 20th Jul 2005

Log Text: Unless this is another name for the Dolmen des Sept Chemins, I could find nothing for this.

Pierre Levée de Boisy

Trip No.205  Entry No.268  Date Added: 13th Dec 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Centre:Indre (36))
Visited: Couldn't find on 27th Sep 2005

Log Text: The village of Bagneux has a signposted footpath of length 5.5 km which takes in three megalithic sites. One of these sites is this menhir. I didn't have time to do the full walk, and without a detailed map, and no obvious signs to the menhir, I didn't really know where to look. I have since found this menhir marked on a detailed map, and it would have perhaps been a fairly simple few hundred metres walk from the Bellevue farm.

Pierre Levée au Bois Bouéry

Trip No.205  Entry No.21  Date Added: 14th Oct 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Limousin:Haute-Vienne (87))
Visited: Yes on 31st Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: In the forest to the southwest of Saint-Sulpice-les-Feuilles, this dolmen is easily found as it is signposted from the D.2 road, several kilometres to the north. From the road that leads to the dolmen, it is just a hundred metres walk from a parking place, and it resides in a little forest clearing.

The dolmen is quite a big one, made from granite rocks. The capstone is sort of mushroom shaped, and about 5 metres in diameter. It sits on top of 5 support stones, with at least one other fallen, and is about 1.5 metres off the ground. It covers an oval shaped chamber 4 metres by 3 metres internal dimensions with the probable entrance to the east. The support stone at the northern side appears to have engravings on it, and I would put money on the markings not being natural. Near to the ground is a classic palette about 40 cm long pointing towards the right, and above this a classic necklace and breasts, or else a smiley face. I have not seen any reference to there being carvings here.

Pierre Levée (Villedieu)

Trip No.205  Entry No.251  Date Added: 13th Dec 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Auvergne:Cantal (15))
Visited: Yes on 26th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Beside the D.44 road west of St Flour, near to the hamlet of Fraissinet can be found this megalithic collection of a standing stone and two dolmens, within 300 metres of each other. The menhir is about 2 metres tall, and it stands just to the west of the road. It consists of a nice lump of pointy topped basalt.

Pierre Levée (St Léger-de-Montbrun)

Trip No.204  Entry No.129  Date Added: 13th Aug 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Poitou:Deux-Sèvres (79))
Visited: Yes on 18th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Just to the north of the road from the town of Thouars to Loudon, a couple of kilometres east of Thouars, can be found this complex of stones. Firstly, there is a simple dolmen, 3 metres by 2 metres, within a restored circular cairn about 10 metres in diameter. The single capstone sits on two side supports and an end stone, and it appears to open to the southwest. Just north of this are lots more stones, which would seem to make one large, and one small chamber adjoining the first cairn. The large chamber would be 5 metres by 2.5 metres, while the adjoining smaller chamber is about 2 metres by 1.5 metres. This is probably to the side of what was the entranceway, facing to the east.

I don't have very much time to spend here, as it has now gone 8:00pm, so I'll have to do a very quick sketch. After a not very good start to the day, it has turned into an excellent afternoon and evening, and the sun has come out to make it even better.

Pierre Levée (Salles-de-Castillon)

Trip No.203  Entry No.221  Date Added: 21st Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Aquitaine:Gironde (33))
Visited: Yes on 2nd Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: This one comes with its own wine! While driving from Peyre Lebade towards Clotte I saw this stone standing at the entrance to a farmhouse wine producer and noticed that the farm was called Chateau de la Pierre Levée.

I stopped to have a better look and a man on his tractor in the vineyard came over to me so I tried to ask him about the stone. Apparently somewhere in his garage he has an archaeological panel with some information on it which he intends to get erected by the stone but he couldn’t find it. He called his wife who told him it was in the garage and went to look for herself also to no avail ! At this point I enquired of their wine and got taken on a little tour of the place and a tasting or two (how could I refuse?) so of course bought a case of mixed vintages for a very reasonable price as a souvenir.

The menhir at the entrance is just over 2 metres tall but I have to say looks fairly recently erected there although the stone looks as old as the hills. I think I saw somewhere that the menhir after which the wine is named was in a corner of a field. Perhaps it has been fairly recently moved here. It’s a pity I couldn’t fully converse with the chap he had a thick accent which didn’t help and although we chatted well about simple things the details were missed.

Pierre Levée (Liniez)

Trip No.205  Entry No.264  Date Added: 13th Dec 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Centre:Indre (36))
Visited: Yes on 27th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Just outside the village of Liniez, along the D.926 road towards Vatan, and to the right of the road can be seen the remains of this allée couverte. It was probably an Angevin type allée couverte, but there are no obvious remains of the porchway. The remains of the chamber are 10 metres long by 4 metres wide, and it was probably covered by four capstones, of which three remain in various positions, from still in place at the back end, sloping in the middle and flat on the ground at the front. Several side slabs remain, as does the backslab, and there is evidence of a possible internal partition, although it could be bits of broken capstone. The back cell of the chamber is still all nicely erect, making this a pleasant monument to visit. It is all orientated towards the east at 070°.

Pierre Levée (La Grange)

Trip No.204  Entry No.303  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Centre:Indre-et-Loire (37))
Visited: Yes on 11th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This is a large upright slab, 3.5 metres high and 3 metres wide, in a field overlooking a stream. Beside it are a few more large slabs, but they don’t look like they have broken off the top, although it is possible. It's a lovely limestone sort of slab, and looks like holes have been drilled into it in places, perhaps in an attempt to break it up.

I only found this at the second attempt, along the track from near La Grange farm from the west, after completely failing to even find the track from the east by the railway bridge, as fishing ponds have been made all along the valley.

Pierre Guénachère

Trip No.204  Entry No.203  Date Added: 27th Aug 2020
Site Type: Sculptured Stone Country: France (Bourgogne:Saône-et-Loire (71))
Visited: Yes on 3rd Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This is a large granite blockdeep in the forest near a little stream, about one kilometres walk from the farm of La Madeleine, just to the west of St Emiland. Take the track beside the farm, keeping left, and after some distance it is signposted.

The stone is a granite block, 4m by 3m by 2m high, which has got several strange carvings in it, particularly large circles. On the north side there are three circles, between 70 cm and 1 metre in diameter, while on the south side there is a straight line and a large, deeply cut circle, more than one metre in diameter. These symbols seem to have been very roughly hewn with stone tools, and it is thought that they are prehistoric. There are many legends associated with this stone, of which I don't know any.

Pierre Fritte de Yermenonville

Trip No.204  Entry No.264  Date Added: 9th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Centre:Eure-et-Loire (28))
Visited: Yes on 7th Aug 2005. My rating: Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: In the village of Mevoisins I saw a sign pointing to Dolmen de la Pierre Fitte, so I stopped and went for a look. Little did I realise that I would be walking 2.5 kilometres to it, at 7:00pm in the evening ! And when I finally got there, I couldn't even see the dolmen, as it was undergoing excavations by Archaeo, and enclosed in a tent. There were all sorts of tents and equipment, but nobody around at this time on a Sunday evening, so I left one of my cards. There was a pile of stones on old tyres in one part of the site, and I wondered if these were the dolmen stones. From what I could see through small openings in the big tents, there were no large stones to be seen, just sort of trenches etc, I guess the stones have been moved out of the way. While I was at Mevoisins menhir I had seen a row of cars slowly driving across the fields, and this must have been the archaeologists leaving for the day. While I was walking back, two cars drove past, and on up to the tents. I had missed them by 5 minutes, and might have got a guided tour of the site. Pity its so late, and that I ought to stop.

Pierre Frite de Breuilpont

Trip No.202  Entry No.88  Date Added: 30th Mar 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Normandie:Eure (27))
Visited: Couldn't find on 3rd May 2005

Log Text: As for the other menhirs in this river valley I could find no evidence of this menhir. The roads are terribly kept and there are almost no places to turn a campervan so I travelled over much more roads than I would have otherwise done.

Pierre Folle de Saint-Priest-la-Feuille

Trip No.204  Entry No.174  Date Added: 20th Aug 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Limousin:Creuse (23))
Visited: Yes on 22nd Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: What a wonderful little dolmen this is, and so well kept and presented too. What a lovely surprise. It's a bit of a struggle to find from the village of Saint-Priest-la-Feuille (which is on one of the routes to Santiago de Compostella), but take the road towards Lizieres and eventually there are little signposts.

It is kept in a little parkland now, with a carpark, information board, and a windy path across a stream through a little wood and eventually to the dolmen on top of the hill, all in about 100 metres from the roadside. You can see the dolmen through a gap from the road, but then not again until you are nearly there, so well landscaped and routed the pathway is.

The dolmen itself is such a wonderful pretty thing, one of the nicest dolmens I have ever seen, if not the prettiest. The capstone has a flat bottom, but a very rounded top, and it is sat on top of six closely spaced side supports. The dolmen's entrance is at the west, as many of the dolmens round these parts seem to have, and there seems to be traces of an entry passage with stones in the ground. The supports are quite tall and thin, and are closely spaced without any real gaps, and all lean slightly inwards towards the top. Unfortunately, one of the side stones is broken. The chamber below is circular, and about 3 metres in diameter, and there is plenty of height to stand up inside. But for me, it is the shape that does it. It is a bit like a badminton shuttlecock, or a cartoon spider or crab, but to me it mostly made me think of a spaceinveder ro suchlike.

Of course, with a dolmen like this there are plenty of legends. One is that the stones all have a dance at midnight on Christmas Eve. Another has it that any girl who slides down from the top will be married before the year is out (whether or not in "birth knickers" I know not!). Yet another legend is long and complex, but involves the devil and dancing.

Strangely, it is not quite on the top of the hill, but just 30 metres from it. The hilltop, just to the north, looks to have a mound built on top of it, I wonder whether there was another tomb here, and perhaps was once another dolmen ? Fabulous.

Pierre Folle (Négrignac)

Trip No.203  Entry No.235  Date Added: 22nd Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Poitou:Charente-Maritime (17))
Visited: Couldn't find on 3rd Jun 2005

Log Text: This I couldn’t find, and I could find no mention of it in the village. It is somewhere to the southeast of the village.

Pierre Fiche de Chacé

Trip No.204  Entry No.98  Date Added: 20th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Maine-et-Loire 49)
Visited: Yes on 16th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This is a nice menhir to find, a few hundred metres walk along a track near to the river Thouet, just to the west of the village of Chacé. The menhir is about 4 metres high, 2 metres wide and with a sloping top, as so many do have. It is signposted from the road, and they go to the effort of cutting all the nettles and other undergrowth for a reasonable distance around it. If only all the local communities were this concerned about their ancient stones. Some nice ducks swimming about in the river.

Pierre du Trésor

Trip No.204  Entry No.328  Date Added: 16th Sep 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35))
Visited: Yes on 13th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Deep in the darkest depths of Fougères forest can be found the Pierre du Trésor. Its actually only about a 400 metre signposted walk from the big car park at the Chennedet crossing of the main D177 road north from Fougères, and the traffic on this busy road is only 100 metres away. My gps didnt stand a chance of picking up a signal, and my camera insisted on using its flash, even on this bright and sunny afternoon.

Its hard to tell exactly what these stones are the remains of. It could be a fairly large simple dolmen which has now collapsed. Normal ground level would be above the stones, and they are now seen within a pit which has been dug around them at some point, no doubt people looking for the treasure. What is probably a capstone is about 4.5 by 2.5 metres, and very irregularly shaped. It is possible to wriggle underneath it, if that should be your want.

Pierre du Tombeau

Trip No.205  Entry No.260  Date Added: 13th Dec 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Auvergne:Puy-de-Dôme (63))
Visited: Yes on 26th Sep 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: Right in the middle of the village of Davayat, near to the traffic lights, this menhir resides in amongst the houses, and is half hidden in a garden yard. It is 4.8 metres high, leaning nicely, and is one of the biggest menhirs in the Auvergne region.

The menhir is perhaps lucky to survive right here between the houses, and in many respects perhaps owes its survival to it being seen as an important and sacred monument throughout history by the inhabitants of the village. There was once another large menhir nearby, but traces of this can no longer be found, it falling victim to agricultural "progress".

Pierre du Pôt

Date Added: 29th Oct 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Normandie:Calvados (14))
Visited: Yes on 2nd Jan 2014

Log Text: None

Pierre du Pont-Champion

Trip No.204  Entry No.300  Date Added: 12th Sep 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Centre:Indre-et-Loire (37))
Visited: Yes on 11th Aug 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This three metre tall menhir lives in a field guarded by cows, just to the south of the busy D.766 road a few kilometres west of the village of Beaumont-la-Ronce. There is a parking area nearby, and its just 100 metres walk along the edge of the field to the menhir. There are several other large lumps of stone around.

Pierre du Maine du Prieuré

Trip No.203  Entry No.228  Date Added: 22nd Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Aquitaine:Gironde (33))
Visited: Yes on 3rd Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: This is a big menhir stood at the edge of the roadside, at least 3.5 metres tall, and the top has been broken off. Not very well looked after, it is surrounded by junk, although by the marks on it, it looks to have been fairly recently re-erected.