Kerivoret Menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.503  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 20th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: About 50 metres away from the Kerivoret dolmen is a nice menhir, which looks to have been shaped with a slanted top. It's about 3.5 metres tall.

Kerivoret Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.504  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 20th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This is a nice looking dolmen sitting in a pleasant field behind the houses. It is signposted from the roan, and has a path to it from behind the houses, where there is room to park. The chamber is about 3 metres long, less than 2 metres wide, and created with a good back stone and two large side slabs each side. There are other stones at the open end, perhaps an entry corridor or a broken front slab. The capstone is a nice piece of granite, and overhangs the sides considerably in places, being about 4 metres across in each direction.

Saint-Denec Alignement de Menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.508  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 20th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: The two St Dénec menhirs are standing in a field near to the farm of St Dénec. Both are about 3.5 to 4 metres high, but they are not nicely shaped and smoothed like most of the menhirs around here.

There is also a rather large menhir like stone laying at the foot of one of the menhirs, and there are other large stones laying in the fields nearby. I wonder if there was once a lot more here in the way of alignements?

On closer inspection of the fallen stone it can be seen that it has carvings on it. Two axes and a couple of the bishops crook shaped symbols (crosses). I was glad I went back for a second look after missing this first time round.

Mezdoun menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.507  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 20th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Two menhirs in a field of growing sweetcorn, so getting close enough to get details was not easy. These two menhirs are both between 4 and 5 metres tall, and have been shaped. The further east of the two looks to have been broken and was possibly once much bigger. They are about 60 metres from each other, on an east to west alignment.

Dolmen de Men-Milliget

Trip No.203  Entry No.510  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 20th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Men Milliget or the St Gonvel dolmen is a pleasant little dolmen living on the landward side of a headland sticking out into the ocean. It's 3 metre by 2 metre chamber is made with a large backstone and two side slabs, with remains of other stones, but it is partially buried in the dunes. The strangely shaped capstone is known as Men Milliget (Roche Maudite, Bad rock).

Saint-Gonvarc'h menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.511  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 20th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 3 Access 2

Log Text: The Pierre de St Gonvarc'h, or Mez menhir, can be seen across a couple of fields, and is another of the monster menhirs of this region (Leon). Comparing it to a nearby cow for size, it must be a good 6 metres tall, and has been beautifully shaped.

Menhir de Kerhouézel

Trip No.203  Entry No.509  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 20th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: The Kerhouézel menhir is another fantastic monster menhir, just inland from Porspoder and signposted. It must be eight metres high and is fantastically smoothed and shaped. I just love these massive stones. I've go to give it a hug ! It is possible that there is a carved symbolon the upper part of the southern face.

Île Melon menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.502  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 20th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 5 Access 2

Log Text: This is frustrating. There is only 15 metres of water between me and the island from where I sit, but the tide is coming in and the island is not going to get any nearer. There is a dolmen on top of the island, and there are also at least two menhirs further down to the south of the island, and looking towards the shore. I believe that there was once a large menhir here also, which was blown up during the war. Perhaps a swim is needed !

Traonigou alignement de menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.505  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 20th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Two fallen and two standing menhirs, which are supposedly aligned on the mid summer sunrise. The two standing menhirs are about 4 and 5 metres tall, the two fallen ones becoming lost in the undergrowth. These stones are signposted, and found just beside the road to the east of the hamlet of Traonigou.

Dolmen de Poulliot

Trip No.203  Entry No.506  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 20th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 2

Log Text: Pleasant enough little dolmen sitting in a field of crops about 200 metres from the road, but with a signpost. The capstone is sitting on three support stones, but I couldn’t get close enough to note any details.

Menhir du Guilligui

Trip No.203  Entry No.513  Date Added: 27th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 20th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: About 60 metres to the east of the Guilliguy headland and dolmen, is a little menhir, about 1.5 metres in height.

Guinivrit

Trip No.203  Entry No.529  Date Added: 28th May 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 21st Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: This really is a nice place to visit, certainly when its quiet and the sun is out. I had hoped to see it with the tide well in tonight, but one thing and another and its now gone 8:00, and the tide is already gone out for two hours, and the water has gone from around it. However, there is still a lot of water flooding out of the bay, and I certainly wouldn't want to try and get a boat in here, as its going at running speed.

The allée couverte is easily found down beside the little harbour, and nowadays is signposted. Its not far at all from the little campsite where I stayed. Despite the fact that it has no capstones, and that some of the large side stones have been broken so it could act as a mole in the water for mooring and protecting boats in the past, it really is surprisingly complete. Most of the stones are still in place, not only of the main chamber, but also the peristalith, which is suitably boat shaped. In fact the whole thing looks rather like a boat pulled up onto the shoreline.

The main chamber is about eleven metres long and 1.5 metres in width, but with the outer stones the full size of the monument is more than double that, perhaps 30 metres by 6 metres. There is both a forward and aft extension to the compartmentalised chamber. Fantastic.

While here, I met a chap out for a bike ride, and we got talking about why I was here and ancient stones. He said he has always lived in the area, and as a boy used to play in the Goazvenn dolmen. He went on to tell me about a large fallen menhir that is almost forgotten, and that nobody ever talks about, and which seems to be in no historical records. He told me how to find it by walking around the coast path, and showed me where it was on my map, fallen onto the rocky shore. I decided that this was one place I had to visit, finding these forgotten stones has much more of a thrill than seeing the well known ones.

Ile Guénioc

Trip No.203  Entry No.519  Date Added: 28th May 2020
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Saw from a distance on 21st Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 1

Log Text: Just offshore from Presqu'ile Ste-Marguerite near the town of Landéda, and due west of Ile Tariec, can be seen Ile Guénioc (Ile Gaignog). This island, which is difficult to get to, has on it three massive cairns with their multitude of chambers and dolmens within them. In order to get here a boat is needed, and I think that landing on the island is controlled, so I am not going to manage it now, as there is nobody about with a boat who I can try and persuade!

Through my binoculars from where I am sat on Ile Tariec it looks superb. The southernmost cairn seems to have about half a dozen entrances in the eastern side and facing towards me, but it isn't a very high cairn. The middle cairn is even larger, but it is slightly obscured by a rise in the land in front of it. Several large dolmenic structures can be seen, with slabs of rock in places. The northern cairn is even higher, and looks to have about 4 entrances.

I feel that I really need to get out onto the island to have a proper look. I must come back one day with a small boat. Oh well, the tide has turned half an hour ago, I'd better start making my way back, I don't want to be stuck out on this little island for the next ten hours !

Ilot Roc'h-Avel

Trip No.203  Entry No.515  Date Added: 28th May 2020
Site Type: Chambered Cairn Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 21st Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: Just offshore from Presqu'ile Ste-Marguerite near the town of Landéda are a few small islands which can be reached at low tide, upon which there are stone monuments. Ilot Roc'h-Avel is one of these, which can be easily walked to from the beach at Kerennoc when not high tide tide.

Towards the western tip of the islet is the fascinating remains of a cairn which is now half on the island with the other half now taken by the sea. At the seaward edge can be seen a drystone walled chamber - only the northern half of which remains. A few large stones lie dotted about on the shoreline, which with a bit of imagination can be placed into position for some sort of chamber.

Just inland and up a bit from the cairn cut in half by the sea is another cairn, again of which certain edge set stones suggest remains of a chamber.

There are lots of children out on the beach below, obviously a school visit. All sorts of fun and games are going on, girls shreiking when their feet touch weed or shells! Brilliant. AAaaaaaaarggghhhh - its a crab !!!!!!

Île Tariec menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.517  Date Added: 28th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 21st Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 5 Access 2

Log Text: Just offshore from Presqu'ile Ste-Marguerite near the town of Landéda are a few small islands which can be reached at low tide, upon which there are stone monuments.

Ile Tariec is one of these, which can only be walked to for a short while each side of low tide, and the island became split into two parts in about 1876. The part of the island nearest to the mainland has the remains of a twelfth century hermitage on it, and the island was used to house dead and ill people in the past when suffering from plague, cholera etc.

On the outward part of the island are the remains of a dolmen and a small menhir. The menhir is only about a metre high, a rock tapered towards the top, but in its position near the top of the island it can be clearly seen from all around.

I was told by the camp site man that the midsummer solstice sun rise, when seen from here with your chin resting on the top of the menhir, supposedly rises between the legs of a dolmen on the main headland, but which has now unfortunately fallen in the dunes. Its a pity I wasn't here 4 or 5 hours ago, as I could have checked the theory. However, from a quick bit of reckoning and I don't think so, the mainland doesn't seem to stretch far enough to the north, but who am I to question the story? The northernmost tip of the mainland is at a bearing of about 075° from here.

Dolmen de Vourch

Trip No.203  Entry No.520  Date Added: 28th May 2020
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Couldn't find on 21st Jun 2005

Log Text: Supposedly the remains of this dolmen can be found near to the coast path just outside the municipal camping. It is said that if you stand with your chin resting on the menhir out on Ile Tariec, then the solstice sunrise used to rise between the legs of this dolmen. It is not marked on any of my maps, and despite now being fallen, I was told that I should be able to find it. However, despite spending well over an hour looking (and enjoying the walk) I could find no sign of this. It could easily be there somewhere in amongst the bracken and the dunes, which are all up and down, and riddled with wartime bunkers.

Île Tariec cairn

Trip No.203  Entry No.518  Date Added: 28th May 2020
Site Type: Cairn Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 21st Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 5 Access 2

Log Text: Just to the north of the menhir on this little island which can be reached at low tide, is the slight mound of a cairn. Its about 15 metres in diameter and 2 metres in height. I could see nothing in the way of structure under all the grass and stuff.

Créac'h Gallic

Trip No.203  Entry No.528  Date Added: 28th May 2020
Site Type: Passage Grave Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 21st Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: Here are the remains of a fairly large dolmen, but it looks to be in a bit of a precarious state. Warning signs and a fence warn of climbing on or near to the stones. The basic chamber is about 4 metres by 2 metres and 2 metres high, with a single capstone resting (just) on three support stones. It looks like a fourth support has recently broken and fallen, and it looks most precarious and that it could fall at any time.

Strangely there are many large slabs around the outside, making a sort of wall, I cannot really make this out at all. Seems it was once a large allée couverte with a peristalith surrounding its mound, some of which still survives. But its a bit difficult to fully make out and understand, and has no doubt been damaged in the past with the construction of the farms and the lanes.

There are many other large stones laying around, I need to try and look this one up. Now I know what it is, it seems obvious what the remains are.

Croazou chapel stèles

Trip No.203  Entry No.525  Date Added: 28th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 21st Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: This is an odd little place where many thousands of years of ritual and worship can all be seen together. In the middle of a fairly busy road junction is built a little chapel which is said to be the smallest in Finistère.

This chapel has been built onto a stèle with it still standing there at one of the back corners about 2 metres tall. Outside the back wall are three medieval crosses positioned on top of a fallen menhir supposedly in all being in their original positions. Around the outside of the chapel is also a fairly recent collection of other crosses from the region which includes one intriguing cross which has been mounted on the top portion of what was obviously once a lovely iron age stele with wonderful shaping and patterns carved into it.

Croazou chapel menhir

Trip No.203  Entry No.526  Date Added: 28th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Finistère (29))
Visited: Yes on 21st Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This is an odd little place where many thousands of years of ritual and worship can all be seen together. In the middle of a fairly busy road junction is built a little chapel which is said to be the smallest in Finistère. This chapel has been built onto a stèle with it still standing there at one of the back corners about 2 metres tall.

Outside the back wall are three medieval crosses positioned on top of a fallen menhir supposedly in all being in their original positions. Around the outside of the chapel is also a fairly recent collection of other crosses from the region which includes one intriguing cross which has been mounted on the top portion of what was obviously once a lovely iron age stele with wonderful shaping and patterns carved into it.