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<< Our Photo Pages >> Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon - Chambered Tomb in France in Normandie:Calvados (14)

Submitted by TheCaptain on Sunday, 19 December 2004  Page Views: 6442

Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon
Country: France Département: Normandie:Calvados (14) Type: Chambered Tomb
Nearest Town: Caen  Nearest Village: Cairon
Latitude: 49.235200N  Longitude: 0.4414W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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jopplanje would like to visit

johnstone visited on 22nd Jun 2009 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4

TheCaptain visited on 23rd Apr 2005 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4 I wasn’t expecting to find much here if anything at all as all the information I had of this site was a menhir symbol on my ign map. But as I was passing I decided to have a look anyway and luckily stopped to look at my map right by a little road at the east of the southern end of the village with a sign to “Pierre Tourneresse”. So I followed it down to the end of a little modern housing estate and parked. A further signpost at the end of the road points to Pierre Tourneresse 300 metres distant. Turn left here and stick to the back of the houses rather than go straight on up the hill. What a lovely site this is. In a little dip down near the stream is a newly made and signposted enclosure which at the time of my visit was still under construction with a ring of trees being planted well around the outside of it. Inside the enclosure is the remains of a large approximately round cairn which has a diameter of about 19 metres and is edged all around with dry stone walling within which are two chambers. The main chamber is large stone lined chamber in approximately the middle of the cairn which has a seven metre long entrance passage which exits to the east of the cairn at a bearing of 100° magnetic. The chamber is approximately rectangular dimensions about 4 to 5 metres in length by 3 metres in width and is made with large upright slabs with drystone walling between. At various positions around this large chamber there seem to be smaller alcoves or features. The second much smaller chamber opens to the west side and is positioned approximately opposite to the main chamber entrance with an alignment of 269°. It is about 3.5 metres long and opens up to about 2 metres in width at its maximum. It is made with drystone walling only and has a ledge of some sort along its northern side. Outside the cairn at a distance of about 15 metres in a northwesterly direction are two very large stones. I wondered whether these were once menhirs which marked the position of the cairn (these northern French cairns are often associated with menhirs) and which would explain the marking of menhir on the ign maps. Looking at these stones more closely however suggested that it is much too wide to have been a menhir so I wondered whether the stones were the remains of the chamber capstone. I spent quite a lot of time here the place seemed to give off a nice happy atmosphere which was probably helped by the fact that for once one of these much neglected ancient Normandy monuments is being lovingly cared for and looked after what was probably many years of neglect. As I was leaving I met a man walking his dog and asked if he knew anything about the site. By an amazing stroke of luck I had met one of the few people in France who has an interest in these ancient sites and who collects flint artefacts ! Despite the language problems we talked for about half an hour about things. He told me that the cairn had been much more complete up until the war during which the Germans had used it as a shelter and gun emplacement. As they were leaving after the D-Day invasion they went about destroying it and the two large stones are indeed the remains of the capstone to the main chamber. He also told me that an excavation of the site was done 5 years ago and the restoration has been going on since then. We got on to discussing other sites in the region and other than the various sites I knew about (he was surprised indeed to find an Englishman who knew anything about any of these places and seemed very interested when I told him I intended to write a book) and he told me of a menhir nearby he knew which was destroyed only a couple of years ago by a farmer who didn’t want it in the middle of one of his fields. He also showed me on my map a couple of places where he goes to find flint items one of which he called a quarry. He said that if I went to one of these places he showed me then if the fields were recently ploughed I would almost certainly find some worked flint items and that he had a collection of over 700 items. He also then told me in detail how to find the two polisher stones near Mont Joly which was of great interest as I would probably not have even looked if I had no detailed information to go on. It was very nice to meet a man like this particularly on my first real day of French stonehunting and it made me think that the whole trip is going to go well.

neolithique02 have visited here

Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.5 Ambience: 4 Access: 4

Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon
Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon submitted by thecaptain : Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon, near Caen. Seen here looking towards the main burial chamber in the centre of the mound along the entrance passageway. nothing much is left here after it was mostly destroyed during WW2, but it is at least being lovingly restored and having a noce (and signposted) little reservation area created around it. (Vote or comment on this photo)
In a little dip down near the stream at the village of Cairon in Calvados, is a newly made and signposted enclosure, which at the time of my visit was still under construction with a ring of trees being planted well around the outside of it. Inside the enclosure is the remains of a large, approximately round cairn which has a diameter of about 19 metres, and is edged all around with dry stone walling, within which are two chambers.

The main chamber is large stone lined chamber in approximately the middle of the cairn, which has a seven metre long entrance passage which exits to the east of the cairn at a bearing of 100° magnetic. The chamber is approximately rectangular, dimensions about 4 to 5 metres in length by 3 metres in width, and is made with large upright slabs with drystone walling between. At various positions around this large chamber there seem to be smaller alcoves or features.

The second, much smaller chamber, opens to the west side and is positioned approximately opposite to the main chamber entrance, with an alignment of 269°. It is about 3.5 metres long, and opens up to about 2 metres in width at its maximum. It is made with drystone walling only, and has a ledge of some sort along its northern side.

Base Mérimée (Historic Monument)
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Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon
Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon submitted by neolithique02 : La Pierre Tourneresse à Cairon Image copyright: Néolithique02, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon
Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon submitted by thecaptain : Checking up on the Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon, just off the ferry at Ouistreham early in the morning. I was hoping for a nice sunrise, it looked as though it may come up viewed along the passage, but clouds came along and obscured any sunrise from view. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon
Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon submitted by TheCaptain : Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon, near Caen. View here looking at the smaller chamber in the west side of the mound, opposite to the main entrance passageway. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon
Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon submitted by neolithique02 : La Pierre Tourneresse à Cairon Image copyright: Néolithique02, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon
Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon submitted by thecaptain : A year and a half after my previous visit, I went to take a look at the Pierre Tourneresse again, to see how it is doing, as it was being tidied up back then. No further changes to be noted, but the grass etc is now growing on the banks built around it. Still nice and tidy and well looked after, but disappointingly no interpretive sign. My Dad in the picture for scale. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon
Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon submitted by TheCaptain : Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon, near Caen. View here looking at the remains of the main chamber, within the walls of which can be seen some little nooks and crannies.

Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon
Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon submitted by johnstone : Close up of the big chamber, June 22, 2009

Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon
Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon submitted by johnstone : The small chamber, opposite of the big one, June 22, 2009

Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon
Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon submitted by neolithique02 : La Pierre Tourneresse à Cairon Image copyright: Néolithique02, hosted on Flickr and displayed under the terms of their API.

Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon
Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon submitted by thecaptain : Plan of Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon, as shown on the sign at Colombiers-sur-Seulles.

Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon
Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon submitted by thecaptain : Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon. Seen here looking towards the remains of the large round burial mound from beyond the two large stones which are the remains of the capstone from the main chamber - removed and destroyed by the Germans during the '39-45 war.

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
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"Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon" | Login/Create an Account | 5 News and Comments
  
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Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon by TheCaptain on Thursday, 27 October 2011
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streetview


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Re: Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon by Rida on Thursday, 24 March 2011
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This is a link on Wikipedia
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Re: Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon by TheCaptain on Thursday, 12 October 2006
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This shows up nicely on FlashEarth and Google Maps now.

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Re: Pierre Tourneresse, Cairon by TheCaptain on Thursday, 12 October 2006
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A year and a half after my previous visit, I went to take a look at the Pierre Tourneresse again, to see how it is doing, as it was being tidied up back then.

No further changes to be noted, but the grass etc is now growing on the banks built around it. Still nice and tidy and well looked after, but disappointingly no interpretive sign.
[ Reply to This ]

Re: Cairon menhir by TheCaptain on Wednesday, 27 April 2005
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Pierre Tourneresse Tumulus, Cairon, Calvados, N 49.2352, W 00.4414 by gps
Visited Saturday, 23 April 2005. Access 4, Condition 4, Ambience 4.

I wasn’t expecting to find much here, if anything at all, as all the information I had of this site was a menhir symbol on my ign map. But as I was passing, I decided to have a look anyway, and luckily stopped to look at my map right by a little road at the east of the southern end of the village with a sign to “Pierre Tourneresse”. So I followed it down to the end of a little modern housing estate and parked. A further signpost at the end of the road points to Pierre Tourneresse 300 metres distant. Turn left here and stick to the back of the houses rather than go straight on up the hill.

What a lovely site this is. In a little dip down near the stream is a newly made and signposted enclosure, which at the time of my visit was still under construction with a ring of trees being planted well around the outside of it. Inside the enclosure is the remains of a large, approximately round cairn which has a diameter of about 19 metres, and is edged all around with dry stone walling, within which are two chambers.

The main chamber is large stone lined chamber in approximately the middle of the cairn, which has a seven metre long entrance passage which exits to the east of the cairn at a bearing of 100° magnetic. The chamber is approximately rectangular, dimensions about 4 to 5 metres in length by 3 metres in width, and is made with large upright slabs with drystone walling between. At various positions around this large chamber there seem to be smaller alcoves or features.

The second, much smaller chamber, opens to the west side and is positioned approximately opposite to the main chamber entrance, with an alignment of 269°. It is about 3.5 metres long, and opens up to about 2 metres in width at its maximum. It is made with drystone walling only, and has a ledge of some sort along its northern side.

Outside the cairn, at a distance of about 15 metres in a northwesterly direction are two very large stones. I wondered whether these were once menhirs which marked the position of the cairn (these northern French cairns are often associated with menhirs), and which would explain the marking of menhir on the ign maps. Looking at these stones more closely however, suggested that it is much too wide to have been a menhir, so I wondered whether the stones were the remains of the chamber capstone.

I spent quite a lot of time here, the place seemed to give off a nice happy atmosphere, which was probably helped by the fact that for once, one of these much neglected ancient Normandy monuments is being lovingly cared for and looked after what was probably many years of neglect.

As I was leaving, I met a man walking his dog, and asked if he knew anything about the site. By an amazing stroke of luck, I had met one of the few people in France who has an interest in these ancient sites, and who collects flint artefacts ! Despite the language problems, we talked for about half an hour about things.

He told me that the cairn had been much more complete up until the war, during which the Germans had used it as a shelter and gun emplacement. As they were leaving after the D-Day invasion, they went about destroying it, and the two large stones are indeed the remains of the capstone to the main chamber. He also told me that an excavation of the site was done 5 years ago, and the restoration has been going on since then.
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