Bilgroix Point Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.335  Date Added: 4th May 2020
Site Type: Modern Stone Circle etc Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 10th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 5

Log Text: Right on the tip of the northern headland at the eastern entrance to the Golfe de Morbiihan, is a nice little parkland area. Within this is a nice modern menhir which has been carved into Mama Mari, the lady of the sea. It is most convincing, and it is nice to sit here watching all the boats nipping about with some tremendous overfalls as the tide rushes into the gulf. There is somebody arsing around out there, reversing a yacht out through all the current and waves, which is confusing many people, and there is lots of shouting going on. I could sit here and watch the world go by for hours, but I'd best move on.

Bilgroix allée couverte

Trip No.203  Entry No.334  Date Added: 4th May 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 10th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 5

Log Text: This is an unusual monument, right near to the end of the northern headland at the entrance to the Golfe de Morbihan, said to date from around 2700BC and unique in western France. It is an allée-couverte with a passage about 10 metres long, but other than a large slab at the back (western) end, it was made completely out of small stone blocks and drystone walling, with capstones placed on top of this. The long mound surrounding the passageway has two drystone walling sections.

The whole monument was later incorporated into defensive ditches and structures on the headland, which no doubt helped with its conservation. It is nowadays set in a delightful garden type area amongst all the houses, and when I was here in early June, it was all awash with brightly coloured flowers of all sorts. Californian poppies, lavatera, pinks, sweet-peas, carnations, marrigolds, daisies, and many others. Absolutely lovely.

Dolmen du Grah-Niol

Trip No.203  Entry No.330  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 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This initially looks to be an allée-couverte type monument, but which has been dated to about 5000BC, so is much older than a standard allée-couverte. It is still largely within its mound, but was restored in 1936 with the help of lots of concrete.

It is about 11 metres long, and has a stele placed outside of it near to the entrance which is at the east. There is a large end chamber at the west, and also a side chamber. Many of the upright stones have carvings and markings on them, Axes, Palettes, U shapes and squiggles, some of which were clear in the sunlight coming in through a hole in the roof. It seems that many of the stones are supposedly re used from elsewhere, and perhaps the large capstone on the side chamber was once a menhir.

Tumiac tumulus

Trip No.203  Entry No.329  Date Added: 4th May 2020
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 10th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: As driving towards this from the east, it suddenly appears from behind something, before you arrive at the parking area and information sign beside the road. Whoooa, it’s a biggun ! It is said in legend that it is the place from where Caesar watched a great naval battle out to sea to the south of here, but there is not expected to be any truth in this, although from the top there is a tremendous view all around.

The mound is 86 metres in diameter and 20 metres in height, but it only has a single 4 metre by 2 metre magalithic chamber within it, which has been dated to 4700 BC. The insides of the monument are no longer open to public viewing.

Kermaillard Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.328  Date Added: 4th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 10th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: This 5.2 metre tall menhir, which was re-erected in 1988, stands in a pleasant little grassy area with an information sign. The stone is flat on one side, rounded on the other, and has been shaped to a point at the top. There are carvings on the stone, many small cupules, and near the base of the flat side, a very clear square with a crescent shape protruding from one corner, which reminded me of a saucepan.

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.

Dolmens des Grays

Trip No.203  Entry No.326  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 2 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Walking to the west along the coast path from the big carpark near the beach at Penlann headland, and you get to the remains of this large cairn after about 500 metres. It is difficult to make anything out nowadays, other than there are lots of large rocks on the remains of a large mound, overlooking the Villaine estuary. Closer inspection shows this to have once been a large 30 metre diameter cairn, with at least three passage tombs within it, two of which still have a few capstones in position.

Dolmen du Crapaud

Trip No.203  Entry No.325  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 2 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Perched on its clifftop, overlooking the sea and a nice sandy beach, from certain angles this does indeed look like a toad poking its head up. Much of the original tomb is no longer with us due to erosion of the cliffs, and what remains is a capstone perched on top of a few small uprights. The capstone is less than 2 metres by 2 metres, but it is in a really splendid position.

The dolmen can be found by walking to the east along the coast path from the big carpark near the beach at Penlann headland.

Dolmen de la Pointe du Scal

Trip No.203  Entry No.324  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 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This site, nearby the Pierre Blanche, is now marked by the ign as a seperate burial chamber besides the Pierre Blanche menhir.

Trehiguier menhir, La Pierre Blanche, is a large white quartz block found down Allée de Megalithe, and at the left just before the end of the road at a boatyard, or fish factory. It is about 2.5 metres high, and 1.5 metres square at the base. About 10 metres away is a large grey slab with some holes, and many other stones which are the remains of megalithic tomb of some kind.

La Pierre Blanche (Trehiguier)

Trip No.203  Entry No.323  Date Added: 4th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 10th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Trehiguier menhir, or Pierre Blanche, is a large white quartz block found down Allée de Megalithe, and at the left just before the end of the road at a boatyard, or fish factory. It is about 2.5 metres high, and 1.5 metres square at the base.

About 10 metres away is a large grey slab with some holes, and many other stones. I dont know whether these other stones are the remains of anything ancient or not. It looks to me like it could be two fallen menhirs, or else a menhir and a tomb of some kind.

Menhir de Condé

Trip No.203  Entry No.320  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 4

Log Text: In the midst of an industrial estate, sandwiched between a quarry and France's equivalent of Middlesbrough, with all the chemical works beside the Loire estuary, and not to forget the nearby airport and motorway, this poor stone doesn’t seem to stand a chance. However, here it still is in a hayfield amongst all the noise. The stone is probably three and a bit metres tall, with the top almost certainly broken off.

Dolmen de la Barbière

Trip No.203  Entry No.318  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This dolmen appears in all the tourist literature, and is signposted for miles around, yet when you get there it is fenced off in private land, although in this case easy enough to access to nearby.

As with a few other dolmens around here, I struggled to identify just what it is the remains of. There are lots of big stones on a little hill top, with one large capstone sitting on three support stones nearest to the road, but there is much more. It is possible that it was once two dolmen chambers with entry corridors. The standing capstone is covering what would have been a 3 metre by 2 metre chamber with an entrance passage to the east, but the rest is too much of a jumble to determine properly.

Le Fuseau de la Madeleine

Trip No.203  Entry No.317  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This is another one that, despite being signposted from the main road, and from several miles away, is inside a double fenced and ditched field, with no obvious access. It is a nice stone this, and must be about 5 metres high, with a possibly shaped outline, pointed at the top, and is covered in nice yellow lichens.

Roche Aux Loups

Trip No.203  Entry No.314  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: This dolmen is signposted from the main road, but when you get there down the farm track, its fenced off in a field with no access signs, but you get a good view across the field. It’s a simple dolmen with a capstone which looks to be precariously balanced on just two supports, although a view from further down the lane confirms there to be a third support stone.

Dolmen Du Riholo

Trip No.203  Entry No.313  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: This is a nice site, up on top of a mound surrounded by forest, although it was difficult to make out what exactly remains here. It seems to be a T shaped arrangement, perhaps an east west oriented chamber with an additional northern part ? I must try to look it up somewhere. Basically, what remains are lots of stones on top of a big mound, with one or two capstones still in place.

La Pierre De Len Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.312  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 2

Log Text: This was a tricky one to find. Not only is it in the middle of a swamp, but the road leading towards it from St-Lyphard was closed for rebuilding work. However, I persevered, expecting to find a nice big stone. But after quite some walking along farm tracks and aacross boggy marshy swampland, it was in fact quite small. It must have sunk into the swamp, which is what happened to me when I got quite near to it, and ended up with soaking wet smelly feet.

Kerbourg Dolmen 1

Trip No.203  Entry No.310  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This is what looks like a little allée-couverte, and is actually signposted and with a little clearing around it for visits. It is to be found just behind the Moulin a Fée, a prototype wind generator built inside an old windmill, and looking just like an old windmill except with a modern whirring sound rather than the old style noises which would be expected.

The chamber is about 6 metres long by 1 metre wide, and faces southeast at 125°. There are 4 capstones in place, sitting on top of many sidestones. Closer inspection shows it to have an oval chamber, 2.5 m by 2.0 m at the end of a curving entrance corridor. Is it a bad restoration job, or is it some intermediate stage between a dolmen a couloir and an allée-couverte ?

I was expecting to find two megalithic burial monuments here, but look as much as i could, I couldn't find another one, which is probably in the undergrowth in or around a wheatfield.

La Pierre Blanche (Kerbourg)

Trip No.203  Entry No.309  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 2

Log Text: They really don’t want people looking at their megaliths around here. There are no signs, nowhere to stop, and everything overgrown and behind double barbed wire fences, with hedges and brambles growing in between them. The menhir can be seen from the roadside across the far side of a field, but there seems to be no way to get near it.

Kerdanestre Menhir Christianisé

Trip No.203  Entry No.308  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This is a smallish menhir which has been sculpted into a cross and mounted on a pedestal at an ancient road junction. The stone is about 1.5 metres tall above the pedestal, and sparkles beautifully in the sunshine. It looks to have probably been recently restored.

Keralio Croix Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.307  Date Added: 29th Apr 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique)
Visited: Yes on 9th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: This is a tall thin menhir sculpted into a cross, mounted on a nice flower filled pedestal on the village green at Keralio. The stone is probably about 2.5 metres tall, and obviously well looked after.