Kerherne-Bodunan dolmen

Trip No.204  Entry No.37  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 5 Access 3

Log Text: This lovely monument is to be found in some lovely oak woodland high on top of a hill overlooking a stream. It is signposted from nearby, but there is nowhere really to park, and it’s a fair walk along a track and then up a woodland footpath.

The monument is a strange one, which uses a natural rock outcrop as its base. The first thing you reach is a massive chamber, 4 mtres long by 2.5 metres wide covered by a single massive slab. It would seem that the chamber has been made by splitting the rock outcrop and pushing some of it outwards, but leaving the top of the stone in place to act as its cover. The cover slab is 5.5 by 3.5 metres in size. To the north of this main chamber has been made a passage, running off for about 10 metres, and again using many natural rocks. A few cover stones are in place still, but most have fallen. Oddly it runs away from the large main chamber and I doubt the two would have originally connected on the inside. Perhaps its either two seperate chambers, or like the passage and antechamber in many other allée couvertes. Lovely, and well worth a visit.

Kerjagu allée couverte

Trip No.204  Entry No.40  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: A pleasant little allée couverte which cn be found round the back of the farm of the same name. Although the eastern end is very damaged, the passageway can be seen to be about 10 metres long. Many of the sidestones lean on each other, and with the lack of capstones I wonder whether it is of the Arc Boutté type.

At the western end there is a fairly large chamber covered by a single capstone, making it look almost like a dolmen a couloir. Behind the closing stone is a little extra chamber, as is often the case.

Menhir du Mené

Trip No.204  Entry No.49  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This tall thin menhir is built into a roadside bank, and is more than 4 metres tall from the top of that. If the ground level is at the road level, the menhir would be 7 metres tall. It is difficult to get to see due to all the undergrowth, but when round the back, in amongst the brambles, it looks like it has a crook carved onto it.

Kermorvan Dolmen

Trip No.204  Entry No.50  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This is the remains of a little dolmen at the roadside to the southwest of Moustoir-Ac. There is a single capstone, approximately round with diameter 2.5 metres, sitting on top of four or five uprights. There are a few more stones around the area. It is possible that this is the end of an allée couverte which has been wrecked by the road being built through it.

Dolmen de Roh Du 1

Trip No.204  Entry No.51  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This simple dolmen, still half within its small round mound, can be found a few hundred metres walk into the forest from a signposted parking place nearby. It has been dated to between 2000 and 2400 BC, and has a very simple form, reminiscent to the dolmens to be found further to the south of France. There are two side slabs and an end stone making a chamber about 2 metres long by 1,5 metres wide, with a single capstone sitting on top. The remains of the mound are about 10 metres in diameter.

Kerara Menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.46  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This is a nice shaped menhir, just under 4 metres tall, standing in a little clearing in an area of many natural granite rocks. It is just beside the road and has a parking place and signpost, from which it is about a 50 metre walk. Its got some lovely shade for this very hot and sunny afternoon. It is only a few hundred metres from the large Kermarquer menhir.

Kerarmel Menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.39  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This nice pointed deltoid menhir must be over 5 metres in height, and is easily found just beside the D.778 road south of St Jean-Brévelay by the farm of the same name. It seems a strange position to me, on a hillside. It has a chestnut tree growing beside it, and from many angles it looks like the stone is the trunk of the tree.

Lann Doaur menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.38  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This menhir, more than 4 metres tall (4.5m), is right beside the dirt track between Kertuhet and Kercado. Its almost 3 metres in width, but less than a metre thick

St Jean-Brévelay stèle

Trip No.204  Entry No.33  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: Right out the back of the church, is the remains of an iron age stele, almost used as a roadsign.

St Jean-Brévelay menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.32  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Right outside the church is a splendid 4 to 5 metre tall menhir. It looks like an original, but I couldn’t find it mentioned in any of my books.

Larcuste cairns 3

Trip No.204  Entry No.45  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: To the south of the two restored cairns, it is clear to see that there is a very faint raise in the adjacent field which is the ploughed out remains of a further cairn. In fact there were once two more cairns here.

Kermarquer menhir

Trip No.204  Entry No.47  Date Added: 11th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: This superb menhir can be found in a little woodland clearing, not far from the roadside to the southwest of Moustoir-Ac. It is signposted, and there is a little parking area.

The menhir, which is slightly leaning, must be getting on for 7 metres tall, and it has been mostly shaped and smoothed, although one face is fairly rough and has probably had bits fall off over the millennia. Not only has the menhir been shaped and smoothed, but there are also carvings on it, which are quite difficult to make out in the strong mid afternoon sunlight, but at other times may be quite clear. I counted at least four crook shapes on the stone, two on the southwest side, one on the southeast face and one on the north east side, but there are probably more. These carvings are not engravings, but are in relief, and they face in both directions.

Larcuste Cairns

Trip No.204  Entry No.42  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The remains of these chambered cairns are easily found by following the plentiful roadsigns a couple of kilometres to the south of Colpo. This well known and important site occupies a hilltop position in open countryside, but has a large area set aside around it. What it consists of these days are the remains of two cairns, but once there were several more lined up with them. Looking around, a bit further to the south on the top of the hill it is easy to imagine there being another large cairn or two, with undulations in the ploughed fields suggesting their position.

The two cairns we have today are largely made up of dry stones, and sit beside one another, with their eastern entrances aligned with one another. The site has been dated to about 4000 BC. Both of the cairns have had major restoration work carried out on them after excavations in 1968 to 1972, and its a shame to report that, although lots of concrete and cement has been used to hold them together, much of this work is now falling apart. I guess its due to the number of visitors this place must get, but its in need of further work to prevent deterioration. This is what prevents me giving a 5 for the condition of the place.

I have since read that there were indeed once 4 cairns here originally, the other two of which have been completely ploughed out. I have also read that there are some very faint engravings and carvings of crooks and serpents on a few of the large stones inside cairn 1.

Larcuste cairns 1

Trip No.204  Entry No.43  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Cairn 1, the northern of the two, contains two dolmens with entry passageways, which both open to the east. The chambers are made up of alternating slabs and drystone walling. Only the northern chamber has its capstone in place, along with one of its passageway covers.

If the reconstruction is accurate, then it looks to me as if this was built in two stages, the southern single dolmen built first in a smaller cairn, with the northern chamber being added at a later dateto the outside of the original cairn. Each chamber is about 3 metres by 2.5 metres, with a 3 to 4 metre long entry passageway.

I have read that there are some very faint engravings and carvings of crooks and serpents on a few of the large stones inside this cairn 1.

Larcuste cairns 2

Trip No.204  Entry No.44  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Cairn 2 is a slightly bigger mound, with only a single eastern facing entrance. From this entrance, the passageway continues for about 10 metres into the cairn, and from which 6 chambers open out onto the sides. Each chamber is topped with a capstone, 4 of which remain today. Most of the walling is made with dry stones, very few large slabs are in place. Some of these chambers are quite round, while others look sort of squareish, and all are about 1 to 1.5 metres in dimension.

Dolmen dit Lannek-er-Men

Trip No.203  Entry No.327  Date Added: 4th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 10th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: This is a little dolmen sat on a green area outside a very pretty house. It has a little oval chamber, 3 metres by 2 metres, with an entrance to the east where there was perhaps once an entrance passageway. The two capstones sit on several side slabs, and the floor is paved with large stones also, but it is only about half a metre in height.

Kervehennec Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.364  Date Added: 11th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: To the north of the D781 road, in a little area behind Kervanhennic farm can be seen the remains of this fairly wrecked dolmen on top of a little granite hillock. There is not much more than a single 3 m by 2 metres capstone and a few support stones to be seen. It looks to have had a wall built into it in the past, and it is becoming overgrown.

Fontaine St Michel

Trip No.203  Entry No.412  Date Added: 21st May 2020
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 14th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Following the path round the back of the tumulus looking to get a good photograph there was a sign to Fontaine St Michel which I followed. After a few hundred metres there is a nice little well with a little well house and offerings area above a clear pool of water slowly bubbling up from the ground.

I have no doubt that this spring has been here for thousands of years and indeed quenched the thirst of the men building the tumulus. And this turned out to be site 500 in my French stonehunting trip catalogue of site visits. Incredible really that I am seeing hundreds of dolmens and menhirs yet a well gets to be site 500. Probably only my third well !

Kervéresse Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.359  Date Added: 11th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 12th Jun 2005

Log Text: I couldn’t be sure that I found this dolmen, what I did see was a bit of a mound covered in thick undergrowth in a private garden beside the D718 road to the north of Locmariaquer.

Dolmen de Rosnual

Trip No.203  Entry No.388  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: A couple of kilometres north of Carnac along the D119 road, turn right towards Rosnual. Just beyond the campsite of the same name, go left up a farm track as the lane goes to the right. After about 50 metres, just beyond the first field wall on the left is the dolmen. You wouldn’t know it though, as its completely overgrown and used as a farmyard dump. I cant say a thing about the dolmen other than it is under there somewhere. There are traces of a mound, and perhaps a circle of stones surrounding it.