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

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.

Tossen-Keler Cromlech (1964-2018)

Trip No.214  Entry No.23  Date Added: 5th Jun 2020
Site Type: Stone Circle Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 17th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: Following lunch in the old town at Treguier we were then heading north along the river to go and sort out the Roche Jaune menhir quandary, so first did a little detour by dropping down from the old town to the quayside for a quick look at the Tossen Keler cromlech.

Poor thing is looking very unloved today, with vehicles parked all around it and various funfair or market stalls nearby. In this situation, it looks not much more than a load of big stones used to divide up the quayside into carpark, boatyard, and other areas. What a shame. Dad was asking why it has been moved here, and I have to say, I still have absolutely no idea.

Saint-Uzec menhir

Trip No.214  Entry No.22  Date Added: 3rd Jun 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 17th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Thought Dad would like to see this one, so chose this as the only megalithic site to specifically go look at after leaving Ploumenach about midday and driving round the coast road. We get here with nobody else around, the sky is a perfect blue and lots of birds chirrupping away. I think that when I have been here before it has either been dull grey sky, or with the sun in the wrong direction making photos bad, but today it is really looking terrific, with the carvings clearly showing up.

Dad seems very interested in why it is all carved like this, and it is significant that it is currently Easter holiday, and only yesterday somebody commented about my resurrection from Ile Carn. Although the carvings were all very clear, we could not be sure what they are all meant to represent, clearly neither of us are fully clued up on Catholic religion and its symbolism! Me being me, I particularly like the sun and the moon at the top of the stone. Fabulous.

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.

Pointe de Guilligui allée couverte

Trip No.214  Entry No.11  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 16th Apr 2014

Log Text: Seen high up on its rocky promontary from across the bay on the quay at Portsall.

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.

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.

Menhir de Kerriou

Trip No.214  Entry No.24  Date Added: 5th Jun 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 17th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Marked on the ign map to the north east of Plouguiel, along the road to La Roche Jaune, is this menhir in the middle of a field, which I wondered whether this was the newly posted onto the portal menhir, despite it not fitting the description. So, after a pleasant lunch at Treguier, it’s time to have a look and find out. No, this stone is clearly not that recently posted as La Roche Jaune menhir, but something in its own right.

Although in the middle of a field of artichokes, the farmer has ploughed out the crop to allow passage to it. The stone is probably not much more than 5 feet in length, and leaning substantially. It has a hole cut through it near to the top, giving the impression of something a bit more modern, but I do not know. I have no reason to doubt the ign map that it is indeed a menhir.

Menhir de Kerloc'h

Trip No.214  Entry No.25  Date Added: 5th Jun 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 17th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Part of the La Roche Jaune menhir mystery solved, and so time to continue along the road towards La Roche Jaune in order to find and fully position the "unknown menhir".

A couple of kilometres further to the northeast, right at the roadside and fitting all descriptions, this menhir is easily found. It is about 6.5m tall, and has clearly been recomposed out of several broken parts, and has a strange look about it, as if it has an open mouth. I cannot find any reference to when it was re erected.

Men-Marz

Trip No.214  Entry No.5  Date Added: 28th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 16th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Had to bring Dad to see this fantastic menhir which is found to the north of Brignogan-Plage village and found by following plentiful signs. Men-Marz is set in a nice little area which has an information centre across the road with lots of informative boards.

At more than 8.5 metres high it is said to be the fourth largest menhir still standing in France. It is a strange shaped beast as are the natural rocks around here and looks to be a thin and straight beast when seen from front and back but is a sort of triangular shape when seen from the sides with multiple cavities and ledges in the sides.

The stone has suffered from Christianising vandalism on at least two occasions as it not only has a granite cross mounted on the top but there is also an engraved cross on the south-eastern corner about 1.5 metres from the ground. This stone has many legends attached to it which seem to get a bit mixed up and confused. There is a ledge high up on the south side which today had a lot of loose stones on it, attached to which are legends concerning marriage or childbirth. Both myself and Dad failed to land our stones on the ledge!

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.

L'Armor menhir

Trip No.214  Entry No.21  Date Added: 3rd Jun 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 17th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This menhir is in a private garden which had a huge and thick hedge around it, making the menhir difficult, if not impossible to see. However, since my last visit, the (presumably new) owners of the house have cut the hedge beside the road, and indeed made a gap through which the menhir can now be clearly seen. The menhir is a pointed piece of granite, between 2 and 3 metres tall. A win for all.

Keryvon allée couverte

Trip No.214  Entry No.20  Date Added: 3rd Jun 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Côtes-D'Armor (22))
Visited: Yes on 17th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Doing a little coastal route after leaving Ploumanach, and the remains of this allée couverte are right beside the D.788 road from Trébeurden to Trégastel, only feet from the cliff edge.

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.

Ile Carn menhir

Trip No.214  Entry No.9  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 16th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 1 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: I read somewhere that a menhir was once reported on this island, but has become missing. So, before we went for a look at the cairn, I had a brief look all over the rest of the island, and just behind one of the ruined concrete look out positions is a large long stone laying flat to the ground and mostly now buried, which would have made a perfect menhir, probably just below 2 metres tall.

Île Carn cairn

Trip No.214  Entry No.10  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 16th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 3

Log Text: Just offshore from the bay of Porsguen in the community of Ploudalmézou at the northwestern point of Finisterre, Brittany, lies a small island, which can be walked to at low tide from the mainland. A large part of this small island is made up of a massive and remarkable round cairn which contains three dolmenic chambers. The outer round cairn is about 30 metres in diameter, and perhaps still almost 10m in height. It seems to have only been recognised that an ancient cairn was here in the late 19th century, which was further recognised by others in the early 20th century, with a description of 1925 mentioning the presence of an anthropomorphic stele, 1.75m in height.

During the course of the second world war, construction of a lookout post and gun battery on the island broke through into the monument and revealed the presence of the southern chamber. During the following ten years degradation of the monument became rapid, accelerated by clandestine excavations, until in 1954 a rescue plan was put into place under the direction of P-R Giot. Following an interruption, further excavations occurred between 1964 and 1967, which showed that the construction was made using local materials, mostly granite stones with occasional use of megalithic slabs. Several phases of construction were revealed.

The initial construction was a circular chamber of diameter approx 3.5 metres with an entrance passageway from one side of the chamber thus making a q shape, leading in from the southeast. The structure is all of dry stone walling technique except for the entrance passage which is covered with megalithic slabs. The chamber is roofed with a circular corbelled structure which remains intact to this day. Drystone walling had been used to block off the chamber at both extremities of the passageway. The whole of this was enclosed in a circular cairn. Carbon dating has been used to suggest the structure dates back to as long as 4700BC.

The second construction was the addition of a second chamber to the south, with a rectangular plan, and long entrance passageway approx 5 metres in length to the southeast. Carbon dating has been used to suggest this structure dates back to perhaps 4500BC.

Further construction followed with the addition of a third tomb to the northern side of the first, within which are two conjoined chambers, the southern of which is perhaps double the size of the northern, which has a couple of large megalithic slabs used in its construction. Dating of this structure has been used to show a possible date of as far back as 3900 BC or more recently of 2000BC, suggesting a possible long term use of this particular structure.

Following these three cairns, a fourth stage of construction was to possibly make a single large rectangular cairn covering the three adjacent structures. This was then probably followed by a fifth construction stage of an approximately 30 metre diameter circular structure with a facing wall, up to a metre in height surrounding the whole thing, and this blocking off all three chambers.

Within the central chamber were found several small vases and other crescent shaped items which have become eponymously named in the Carn style, along with several pearls and flint tools. The southern chamber revealed more pots including a single small vase of just 5cm diameter, but of similar styling, whilst the northern chamber revealed a splendid 10cm diameter flask and some fine polished flint items, and some fragments of red ochre.

Fabulous

Guinivrit

Trip No.214  Entry No.2  Date Added: 28th May 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 16th Apr 2014

Log Text: Seen from over the estuary from the south, tide out and on the sandy beach.

Grand menhir de Saint-Eden

Trip No.214  Entry No.1  Date Added: 28th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 16th Apr 2014. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Splendid fallen menhir, right at the edge of the sea, and bigger than I recall it. Now got some pictures with Dad in it for scale. Dad thought it looked like it had a snake or serpent head

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.