Kerjagu Menhirs

Trip No.204  Entry No.41  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Just to the north of the allée couverte and almost in the garden of a house are a couple of menhirs, one standing about 3 metres tall, the other broken and fallen beside it. This fallen stone would have probably been taller than the one still standing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kergonfalz Tumulus

Trip No.204  Entry No.35  Date Added: 8th Jul 2020
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: To the west of Bigan, and signposted from there, can be found this dolmen almost completely still within its large mound, just over the road from the easily found allée couverte. The mound must be about 25 metres in diameter, and up to 5 metres high within woodland. The rectangular chamber is about 3 metres by 2 metres, and covered by a single capstone. The entry passageway to the chamber, although now completely fallen and dug into, comes off the chamber and exits to the outside at the east after turning through almost a right angle, a bit like a small version of the Bono tumulus.

Roche de Migourdy

Trip No.204  Entry No.28  Date Added: 6th Jul 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 11th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: This was a nice one to find, and is a few hundred metres walk up a track and then across a field to the south of the village of Kergoff, which itself is a few kilometres south of Plumelic. What you find is a nice 25 metre diameter mound at the top of the hill in a field, covered as usual with trees and dense undergrowth.

Within this mound is the remains of a very nice dolmen a couloir, still mostly buried within it. The chamber is about 3.5 m by 2.5 m and lined with large slabs. The whole thing is topped by a single large capstone, and there is room enough to stand up within it. A couple of stones remain from the entrance passageway.

I understand that this mound once had two dolmens within it, one of which has now been wrecked. I found no sign of another chamber anywhere, but that is not to say that there aren't remains hidden in the thick undergrowth somewhere.

Menhir Fourchu

Trip No.204  Entry No.25  Date Added: 6th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 11th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This is a nice menhir stood at the side of the road just to the east of Lezonnais. It is about 3.5 metres tall, 1.5 metres wide and only 0.3 metres thick, and has a nicely forked shape at the top, hence its name, and a sort of nose on one side. Around this area are many stones stood up beside the road, in gardens etc, of which I assume are mostly modern and field clearance, otherwise I would have known about them, but perhaps they are the remains of something once much more significant.

Dolmen de Coëby 1

Trip No.204  Entry No.20  Date Added: 6th Jul 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 11th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: In the thick forest, just beside the D.766 road north of the Grande Loge can be found the remains of this dolmen. It's difficult to tell exactly what it is the remains of, but there are half a dozen large stones still standing. It was possibly a large simple chamber of which the capstones have now fallen, of which the largest is approximately 4 m by 4m trapezoidal shape.

The forest was obviously undergoing a major clear out when I visited, after having become totally overgrown and impenetrable. I understand that there are more than half a dozen dolmens and chambers to be found in this piece of forest, but they are not easy to find. I am not at all surprised. It would be nice if a little woodland walk was arranged, as at many other communities.

Menhirs de Coëby 1

Trip No.204  Entry No.22  Date Added: 6th Jul 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 11th Jul 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: At the junction of lanes in the forest, there are a couple of menhirs. Both are about 3 metres high, and they are about 15 metres apart. Not marked on any map I have seen, they are however easy to find.