Dolmen de Nauterio

Trip No.203  Entry No.390  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 3 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: This is a pleasant little dolmen, sadly becoming very overgrown, which can be found about 50 metres up the track which leads northwest beyond Nauterio towards Keriaval. It has a 2.5 by 2 metre chamber, with a 6 to 7 metre entrance passageway which has a couple of its capstones still in place.

The French Aeronavale are playing overhead in their Super Etendards.

Mané-Kerioned Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.392  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 5 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: This monument is in the process of being cleared of undergrowth at the time of my visit, so despite cutting and strimmers working around the place, I will get to see it. Perhaps the authorities are just starting on a major clear up of many of the ancient sites after years of neglect.

Much has been written about this place and the finds excavated here in the past, so I will not write much. This site has a collection of three passage graves, once all contained within a large oval mound, some of which still remains despite the road cutting right through it. Two of the passages are aligned north south, with the entrances at the south, while the other is situated between these, and aligned east west with its opening to the east.

The central and western chambers are now largely fully above ground, but the eastern chamber is almost completely still below ground level in what remains of the mound. Entry to this passage is down some modern stairs, and a torch is necessary to see the insides properly. Within this tomb, there are many finely carved stones, with unusual chequerboard designs on them, as well as some more standard serpents and axes, but unfortunately my camera seemed to be playing up again.

At various places surrounding the site are several menhirs remaining.

Dolmen de Cosquer Er Mané

Trip No.203  Entry No.394  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 4 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: A pleasant little dolmen well presented on a sort of village green to the north of the chapel. This is almost certainly the remains of the back end of a passage grave with most of the entry corridor removed, although a few stones and a capstone still remain. The chamber is about 3 metres by 3 metres, with a single large capstone resting on top of several side supports. The back stone has gone.

Tennad-er-Menguen Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.395  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 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Back to the overgrown sites again ! This one is down a lane then across a field before finding it in the undergrowth. Probably once upon a time this was quite a good dolmen with an entry passageway, there is a 3 metre diameter chamber with capstone, and a few stones of the entrance still standing, along with at least one capstone surviving.

Mané-Groh Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.398  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 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Now this is more like it. Signposted and kept tidy in a pleasant forest glade with a nearby carpark, this tomb is found a few hundred metres to the northeast of Crucuno village. It is a large transepted dolmen with a central entry corridor 7 metres long, and two pairs of side chambers, each being about 1.5 metres by 2 metres, at the rear, western end. Each of the side chambers, and the entry passageway is covered, but unfortunately the large capstones over the main chamber between the sides have gone. It is still on the remains of quite a substantial mound, and has been built on top of an earlier, smaller chamber, another of which can be seen just 20 metres further behind the big dolmen.

This is right at the start point for a signposted "Megalithic walk" so I have decided that I will now follow this trackway on my bike. My first notebook is now full up, and my camera memory card also. Thankfully I was expecting this to happen, and have both another notebook and picture card with me in my bag. Signing off from book 1, and its over to book 2, which is unfortunately not in a ring binding form.

Coet-ar-Bei

Trip No.203  Entry No.399  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Travelling along the Chemin des Megalithes, I was wondering what would surprise me next, and the first thing I come to along this path has done it already. What on Earth is this ? Loads of big stones in a wood just off the track. At first it looked like another rectangle, but then I saw more stones. And more. And More.

Some of them are quite big and well over 3 metres tall. Some are lined up, perhaps about 10 rows, with the biggest stone in each row lined up perpendicular to each other, making a massive checkerboard formation. But they are not all in straight lines.

It is wonderful, I think I could spend hours here, but its already 6:00pm and I am getting further away, and not nearer to the van! Must get on. The Chaise de César is no doubt the large chair like menhir at the end of one of the rows. I couldn't get up there to have a sit down - its too high for me alone. I have just had a look at the maps, and none of this is marked on there.

La Chaise de César

Trip No.203  Entry No.400  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4

Log Text: Travelling along the Chemin des Megalithes, I was wondering what would surprise me next, and the first thing I come to along this path has done it already. What on Earth is this ? Loads of big stones in a wood just off the track.

At first it looked like another rectangle, but then I saw more stones. And more. And More. Some of them are quite big and well over 3 metres tall. Some are lined up, perhaps about 10 rows, with the biggest stone in each row lined up perpendicular to each other, making a massive checkerboard formation. But they are not all in straight lines. It is wonderful, I think I could spend hours here, but its already 6:00pm and I am getting further away, and not nearer to the van! Must get on.

The Chaise de César is no doubt the large chair like menhir at the end of one of the rows. I couldnt get up there to have a sit down - its too high for me alone. I have just had a look at the maps, and none of this is marked on there.

Mané Braz tumulus

Trip No.203  Entry No.401  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 3

Log Text: I am surprised yet again. Up on a hilltop a few hundred metres from the Chemin des Megalithes trackway (use off road bike) is signposted Mané Braz, up a little footpath.

The first thing you see is a lot of stones, which upon inspection are a double transepted passage grave similar to Mané Groh dolmen. The main passage is about 7 metres long facing south east, and has 4 chambers at the northwestern end, which are about 2 m by 1.5 m each. Most of the capstones are in place, except for the largest central one at the junction of all the chambers. The main entrance is a bit low, and a crawl to get through, but entry is easily possible through the end of one of the side chambers. Terrific.

A bit further up the hill from Mané Braz dolmen 1 can be seen more stones. This is a more straightforward passage grave dolmen, with a 3 metre by 2.5 metre chamber covered with a large slab, and an entrance passageway curving off towards the south, about 5 metres long. The first capstone to the passage is still in place.

Just next to the Mané Braz dolmen 2 at the top of the hill, are two more, smaller passage graves, each with curving passages about 6 metres long, and smaller slab sided chambers. The third grave still has a couple of capstones on an extension to the original oval chamber, but they are very low. The fourth grave is an oval slab sided chamber and curving entrance, but it has no remaining cover stones at all. It is very low, only about 30 cm in depth.

Surrounding the area are several standing stones. I can only assume that these are various rebuilds of newer larger burial chambers as the years went on, the bigger newer versions getting progressively further east. I may well be wrong of course. I wonder if it was all in one big mound at some point. But what a fantastic place, Do come here.

Mané Braz menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.403  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stones Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 3

Log Text: Just the other side of the footpath to the Mané Braz dolmens, down the hill, is a line of large stones still standing, each about a metre high. There are many other stones. I have no idea what this may be. Maybe a wrecked tomb of some kind.

Kerjean Menhirs

Trip No.203  Entry No.404  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005

Log Text: Travelling along the Chemin des Megalithes, to the west of the Mané Braz dolmens, are to be seen several megaliths within the woods. These are the Kerjean menhirs, but I don’t have enough time to explore every single stone around here. This really is a cracking ride along this path. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Géants de Kerzerho

Trip No.203  Entry No.405  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Stone Row / Alignment Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Coming along the Chemin des Megalithes from the east, the first thing you see is a large menhir, more than 4 metres tall, at the side of the path, with a couple of smaller stones fallen beside it. Then you notice the fallen giant of the Pierre des Sacrifices, 6 metres long and nicely smoothed, upon which I sat writing this.

Then you see a path going behind this, which opens up through the undergrowth to reveal the whole row of Giants. It would seem that the two massive stones at this northern end of the row are not on the same line. Could they have been from a second row of alignements ? This was another pleasant surprise.

Further along are the real giants. Two standing and two fallen, more than six metres tall I would think. It looks like one of the flat fallen stones may have been used as a dolmen with a chamber underneath it. Perhaps they are not fallen giants. Maybe this is the true Pierre des Sacrifices. Whatever this all is here, its a wonderful place.

I must have been having too much fun and am being punished. I am feeling the start of gout coming on and I don't have any tablets with me. And when I get back to my bike I find I have a puncture. ARSE. Mend the puncture at the Kerzerho Alignements.

La Table du Sacrifice

Trip No.203  Entry No.406  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 4 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Pretty much in the middle of the Géants de Kerzerho are two fallen giants, more than six metres long. It looks like one of the flat fallen stones may have been used as a dolmen with a chamber underneath it.

Perhaps they are not fallen giants. Maybe this is the true Pierre des Sacrifices. Maybe it was a fallen giant then used in later times for other purposes.

Whatever this all is here, its a wonderful place.

Kerzerho Alignements

Trip No.203  Entry No.407  Date Added: 14th May 2020
Site Type: Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 13th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: It’s a pity about the busy road running through them, but they are here, looking superb in the sun and you can wander freely amongst them. However, I just want to get back now, having spent almost an hour fixing my bike. There is a Dutch couple here, the man spending ages taking photos with all sorts of kit. Three big bags worth. And wifey posing in front of the stones. These Dutch, eh ? There are a fantastic number of stones in the field here, some of them really lovely shapes.

Kergavat Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.408  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 3 Ambience 2 Access 5

Log Text: Right beside the busy D.781 road just to the south of Plouharnel, can be found this dolmen. In fact, the road has cut through the entrance corridor. This would have been a fairly big standard dolmen with a 4 metre or 3 metre chamber with a corridor to the south east. The single capstone sits on several supports, but its hard to think of this as a good one, being cut by the road, adjacent to a house, overgrown with oats and underneath some powerlines.

Mané Bras

Trip No.203  Entry No.367  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 3

Log Text: According to a signpost at the roadside, it is only a 500 metre walk along a bridlepath to this monument. However, in practice it involved crossing a swamp, negotiating woodland full of brambles and nettles, then crossing an open tract of heather, and last but by no means least, somehow getting through a gorse jungle.

Its a nice monument to find though, as two passagewayed dolmens look out of their mound at you upon finally reaching it. On the right, the northern chamber is about 3m by 3 metres rectangular with a 4 metres passageway to the east. On the left, a 4 m by 3 metre oval chamber, without capstone, has about a 6 metre passage leading out to the edge of the mound. It was all far too overgrown though, and getting photograps was nearly impossible.

Many of these lesser known sites need a good dose of TLC. I later found that there are more dolmens and cjambers to be found here in th hilltop mound. Obviously one for another visit it some time.

Kermarquer Dolmen

Trip No.203  Entry No.368  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: This one is much easier to find than its neighbour, but still involves 100 metres of fighting a way through gorse and bramble filled woodland. The monument is a strange one, with two chambers off of a single entry corridor. The main chamber, a rectangular 2.5 metres by 2.5 metres has no capstone, and leads straight off of the corridor. The second chamber is off to the side of this, with its entry at the side of chamber 1, and is about 1.5 m by 1.5 m, and is covered by a capstone. The corridor has two large capstones still in place. This monument is still mostly contained within its mound, and all very overgrown, making photographs very difficult.

Mané Roullarde

Trip No.203  Entry No.365  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 2 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: The remains of this monument are to be found on a hilltop site overlooking the yachting and seaside town of La Trinité-sur-Mer, now surrounded by expensive looking flats. There is an 18 metre long Allée Couverte known as Er-Groh, with only 4 capstones remaining in place, which faces southeast at 150°. Some of the side support stones have Pierres-Plates style engravings on them, but being exposed in this external situation, they are very difficult to make out amongst the lichens and moss etc.

At some point in the past it has had a wall built into it. There are also said to be several underground passages to be found here, which date back to Gallic iron age times, and of which the description reminds me of the Cornish Fougous. However, I found it impossible to find any of these to be seen amongst the undergrowth of the area.

Crucuny tumulus

Trip No.203  Entry No.371  Date Added: 11th May 2020
Site Type: Long Barrow Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 3 Access 5

Log Text: There is a large mound, 50 metres long and 13 metres high, to be seen just to the north of the hamlet, but all very overgrown and covered in gorse. On top of the tumulus is a menhir, 2.8 metres tall, with axes carved on it.

Moustoir tumulus

Trip No.203  Entry No.375  Date Added: 11th May 2020
Site Type: Chambered Tomb Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: This massive great mound, 90 metres in length, 40 metres wide and 8 metres high, can be found just to the south of the hamlet of Moustoir, a few kilometres to the north of Carnac. The mound is aligned roughly Northeast to Southwest, and has a small menhir on the top at the eastern end, and a larger one at the bottom of the western end.

The menhir on the top of the tumulus is about 2.1 metres high and quite slender, and of a sort of circular section. The menhir at the western end is 3.3 metres high, quite thin and a nice pointed triangular shape.

Towards the western end of the mound is an entrance in the southern side, which after a short passage opens up into a 5 metre by 2.5 metre chamber, with a large capstone and some reinforced concrete. The walls are a mix of large slabs and drystone walling. You need a good torch to see your way around.

There is more to this tumulus, as on the top of the mound near the eastern menhir can be seen a reinforced steel cover to something, indicating that there may be another chamber inside, for which I could find no entry. As for the majority of the monuments around here, this is all terribly overgrown, and difficult to properly make out what is here.

Menhir du Moustoir

Trip No.203  Entry No.376  Date Added: 11th May 2020
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir) Country: France (Bretagne:Morbihan (56))
Visited: Yes on 12th Jun 2005. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 4

Log Text: Just beside the western end of the massive Moustoir tumulus is a nice menhir, 3.3 metres high, quite thin and a nice pointed triangular shape.