<< Our Photo Pages >> Roche-aux-Fées (Essé) - Passage Grave in France in Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35)
Submitted by AlexHunger on Saturday, 25 September 2004 Page Views: 25450
Neolithic and Bronze AgeSite Name: Roche-aux-Fées (Essé) Alternative Name: La Roche Aux FeesCountry: France
NOTE: This site is 3.391 km away from the location you searched for.
Département: Bretagne:Ille-et-Vilaine (35) Type: Passage Grave
Nearest Town: Rennes Nearest Village: Essé
Latitude: 47.936300N Longitude: 1.4042W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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External Links:
I have visited· I would like to visit
PAB SumDoood jopplanje KieKa foz750 would like to visit
aolson visited on 20th Jul 2020 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4 We started our 5 day trip to Brittany with visit to the world's oldest publicly accessible cave paintings, visited 142 megalithic sites, and ended with the world's largest dolmen structure. What a way to finish!
oldman visited on 14th Oct 2019 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 5 This Dolmen is vast. Why it is possible to drive up and walk round it without paying anything is a mystery in these mercenary times. When you first walk through the trees and see it, it is quite breathtaking. It is such an enormous construction.
w650marion visited on 20th Sep 2019 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 5 This feels so good. I can close my eyes and be transported back - the lovely dark pink red stone. So big! It seems that it has this effect upon everyone who visits. Easy to find from the village of Essé, which has parking and toilets!
PhrozenTime visited on 28th Aug 2019 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 5 A nice visitors centre with a video about the site.
rrmoser visited on 29th May 2017 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 4 massive structure. Great ambiance in the rain.
Chrus visited on 1st Jan 2015 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 4
43559959 visited on 23rd Apr 2014 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 5
Jansold visited on 28th Jun 2013 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 4
johnstone visited on 20th Jun 2013 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 5
Jimwithnoname visited on 23rd Sep 2010 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 5 After viewing numerous pictures of this on the web, I felt a strong urge to reach this site. A calling if you like.
Like with a few powerful sites I've visited, my journey is usually a tough one. Be it getting lost and stressed or battling really bad weather, this site proved no exception to those circumstances.
Upon arrival I was truly humbled by it's enormity, but the pains of my journey were soon forgotten when I thought of the labour that went into building this chamber.
Truly one of the most amazing ancient structures I've seen.
TheCaptain visited on 3rd Jun 2010 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 5 June 2010 visit to France to see my sister, and as usual I had my Dad with me. I had decided on a long detour to visit La Roche-aux-Fées, but before we came here, I had told him nothing about it, except to say we were going to visit somewhere special. He is well used to me taking him to old stones all over the place, often on wild goose chases in woods and across fields finding nothing. But not this time.
This monument is now presented quite differently to when I previously visited in 2005, with a large new car park and visitor centre in what would have been fields to the south. Unfortunately, the visitor centre was closed, being open at weekends and holidays only this time of year until July and August when it becomes daily. I have read that this centre is very good, and with a decent book and gift shop.
From the visitor centre, a pathway leads through a nicely landscaped area towards the monument itself, which is hidden behind trees and hedges, until you round the end of a hedge (with a large fallen stone at the corner), and then there it is, in all its splendor, viewed towards the wonderful portal entrance. Even on my second visit here, it is awe inspiring, especially the work on the portico, which is over 4500 years old and still completely level.
My Dad was well impressed too, and couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. “Oh My!, How can this be so big? What’s this for?” he asked. “It can’t be just to bury somebody in. All these separate room bits? Why? It’s a bit like the side chapels in a Cathedral”. Pretty much my thoughts exactly, and it is good to hear these things coming from somebody else with no prompting.
Somebody had made little piles of pebbles and other decorative bits and pieces placed at various places, which looked good. I am impressed by one of the massive capstones which seems to have been fitted exactly into a gap in the supporting side stones. This place is truly absolutely fantastic. I don’t have the words for it.
The new field around the monument has been splendidly done, and gives it the space it needs. Only two other people came to visit in the time we were here, a large improvement over my previous August Saturday visit. One downside are the various noticeboards now erected here, stating that cracks have been found in some of the stones, and people should be careful and not climb on the stones. I hope that there is no bad damage to the place. What would the Fairies think?
TheCaptain visited on 13th Aug 2005 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Small notes only for this very well known and popular site, which I was originally thinking of saving to be my last megalithic visit of my whole 6 month tour. First thoughts, Aaaaarrrrrgghhhh, it's busy. And you pay to get in. Aaaarrrgghhhhh. Never mind, I have to see it. I decided not to take my book with me and write much, I'll just go and have a look and take some photographs.
OK, it wasn't so bad as I first thought. After I had been here a while, most of the people had gone, and it was in fact free entry, but with a little shop and information shed you have to go through first. In fact, it's not a bad place at all. In actual fact, it's a truly fantastic place. It is really beautiful when not overrun by people.
It is a massive Angevin dolmen, 20 metres long by almost 5 metres wide and 2 metres high. The main chamber is divided into four sections by three internal upright slabs. The entrance porchway is about 3 metres long, and fronted by the most lovely portico, consisting of two uprights and a lintel of carefully worked and positioned stone. It is truly awesome. This is definitely one to visit - but try not to come when everyone else has !
ShamrockStone negus neolithique02 pictstones Martin_L DrewParsons have visited here
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 4.58 Ambience: 4.75 Access: 4.67
100 kilometers north of Nantes, near Retiers in the small commune of Essé, the more adventurous will encounter the Idyllic Roche Aux Fées, or “fairies Rock.” The site has been known for centuries but only recently made more presentable. Within the last couple of decades, the local commune, encouraged by the local priest, cleared the area and bought up a bankrupt local golf course to build a parking lot and small visitors center. There is an enthusiastic attendant there.
In its original state, Roche Des Fées, would have been a south east facing nearly 20 meter long barrow, with several large chambers. It is constructed with very large, nearly rectangular reddish brown basaltic blocks that give the site a very structured look. As it stands, it could be described as a mini Stonehenge, were it not for its roofed rectangular shape. It is said to be one of the largest sites in Europe. Originally, it would have been covered by a tumulus, which is now long gone. A couple of the medium sized stones are also displaced to the sides, a 300 year old oak growing over one of them. One of the roof slabs lost a small chunk due to degradation of the rock over 5,000 years, and this piece now lies on the floor of the middle chamber.
Roche Aux Fées served more as a grave, but rituals took place here, according to my pendulum. The cap stone at the entrance has a few indentations, in which blood traces have been found, which would have resulted from animal sacrifices. The South/East facing entrance points directly towards the winter solstice sunrise. The blocks were originally quarried 4 km away, according to the guidebook.
Update January 2019: The Journal of Antiquities also includes an entry for The Fairies Rock, La-Roche, Illet-et-Vilaine, Brittany, which includes local folklore, a description of the passage grave and a drawing.
Base Mérimée (Historic Monument)
Base Mérimée (Patrimonial Inventory)
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