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Anta Grande da Comenda da Igreja
Date Added: 3rd Nov 2019
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen
Country: Portugal (Évora)
Visited: Yes on 13th Oct 2019. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 5 Access 4
Anta Grande da Comenda da Igreja submitted by Magalhaes on 21st Apr 2006. Anta Grande da Comenda da Igreja
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Log Text: I drove north through Montemor-o-Novo, and using a combination of the Satnav and my Google map, found the right place to visit the Anta Grande da Comenda da Igreja. However, it is not simple to find and takes a read of my notes and open the portal page to get full directions.
I park at the relevant position, at the place where there is a metal gate at the west side of the road just north of a river crossing, but there are no signs and nothing obvious. However, having now experienced a few of these, I am able to open the gate and walk through and along the trackway, until I find an even more complex gate arrangement, which I can also pass through following my Google satellite position. There is still nothing obvious to see, but further along descending towards the river bed, and a small wooded area becomes obvious after about 2/3 kilometre, to which I procede, and find a sign for the historical monument. Through another little gate into this wooded area which is fenced off from the main pastures and all of a sudden the monument becomes obvious.
What I find is basically a large round mound perhaps 40 metres diameter, with what appear to be remains of a couple of encircling stone kerbs. At the top of the mound can be seen what appears to be a large dolmen with a broken capstone. Walking around the mound, and there appears what is another smaller dolmen chamber towards the edge, but this turns out to be an entrance corridor to the main chamber.
The construction is huge, the entrance corridor would have been big enough to allow easy entrance and must be at least 10 metres in length stretching to the main chamber. However it is all full of dirt, rubble and nasty looking beasties, so I leave it all well alone. Looking at the main chamber from the top of the mound, it must be nearly 5m long by 4m wide, and although the floor has a lot of rubble and infill on it, must be about 6 metres in height. So this is what Zambujeiro would have been like before it was all dug out and became broken, but not quite as big. It is fabulous.
There is lots of wildlife here, all sorts of birds, butterflies and ants as big as mice! Well worth a visit.
Anta Da Comenda Grande
Date Added: 3rd Nov 2019
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen
Country: Portugal (Évora)
Visited: Yes on 13th Oct 2019. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4
Anta Da Comenda Grande submitted by Bak_teria on 18th Nov 2014. The Anta is visible from the road side. Unfortunately there is no direct access to it, there is a fence blocking the passage.
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Log Text: Leave the Anta Grande da Comenda da Igreja and drive towards São Geraldo, then east towards Sabugueiro for about half a kilometre until the road goes over a small hill through a little cutting then down onto the open plains. The dolmen is just off to the north side of the road at the position of the little cutting, and can be seen from the road.
I parked and walked back to get a better look, the cork oak wodded pasture within which the dolmen stands had a large herd of magnificent horned cattle, which after inquisitively looking at me, decided to leave the area. I was able to get decent views of the dolmen from a few vantage points, but be careful, as at one point I slipped and fell down onto the road as the ground beneath me gave way and avalanched me down onto the road, luckily with nothing passing at the time.
Garn Turne
Date Added: 3rd Nov 2019
Site Type: Chambered Tomb
Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Couldn't find on 5th Oct 2015
Garn Turne submitted by steveco on 24th Feb 2002. Garn Turn Burial Chamber SM979272.
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Log Text: Despite there being a few places to park nearby, I could find no way into the relevant field to have a look at this interesting sounding site, which is not clearly marked on the maps.
Parc Y Llyn
Date Added: 3rd Nov 2019
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen
Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Yes on 5th Oct 2015. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 2 Access 4
Parc Y Llyn submitted by TheCaptain on 21st Dec 2015. Viewed in the hedge across the field from the entrance from the bridleway. The raise of the ground under the hedge can be clearly seen.
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Log Text: Remains of a burial chamber with a splendidly nobbly capstone partly in a hedge at the east side of a field, which can be accessed via a bridleway to the south. When I was here I found it difficult to park anywhere nearby, and the short section of bridleway from road to field was very overgrown and almost impassable.
Lower Broadmoor
Date Added: 3rd Nov 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir)
Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Yes on 5th Oct 2015. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 4
Lower Broadmoor submitted by TheCaptain on 21st Dec 2015. A 2.1 metre tall standing stone in a cattle field just to the south of Lower Broadmoor farm, a couple of kilometres to the north of Wolf's Castle in Pembrokeshire.
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Log Text: A 2.1 metre tall standing stone in a cattle field just to the south of Lower Broadmoor farm, a couple of kilometres to the north of Wolf's Castle in Pembrokeshire. Not so easy to get to as it looks on the map, with many gates across the footpath and ankle deep mud caused by the cattle which use this track. When I saw a way into the field, it looked to be the best way to the stone, but a herd of young cattle saw me and came charging over towards me, so I skidaddled pretty quickly, getting wet in a boggy bit halfway up to my knees. I then satisfied myself with looking at this fine stone from the trackway, and noticed another huge stone in the hedge, which may have lost its top. Made me wonder if these were once a pair or more.
Trehale Stone
Date Added: 3rd Nov 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir)
Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Yes on 5th Oct 2015. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 3 Access 4
Trehale Stone submitted by TheCaptain on 21st Dec 2015. The remains of Trehale Stone as seen to the south of the bridleway.
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Log Text: One of several ancient sites around here, none of them clearly marked on my 1:50000 map. Having parked at Treddiog, I walked along the bridleway to the west, about 300 yards along the track and saw this stone on top of a little hillock in the field to the south. It looks to be broken off, and would once have been much more substantial. At the time I didn't know of the others to be found around here, it was very wet and getting dark, so a quick return to the car was in order! Turns out the stone was dynamited and still has drill holes as a reminder of its fate.
Carreg Samson, Abercastle
Date Added: 3rd Nov 2019
Site Type: Chambered Tomb
Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Yes on 5th Oct 2015. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 4
Carreg Samson, Abercastle submitted by Horatio on 13th May 2019. In a dramatic clifftop location just outside the pretty port of Abercastle stands a Neolithic burial chamber known as Carreg Samson. The name translates as 'Samson's Stone' and refers to the legend that St Samson placed the huge capstone in place using just his little finger.
The dolmen is composed of seven upright stones topped by a huge capstone. The capstone is over 4.5m long (about 15 feet) and 2.7m wide (9 feet). The capstone is actually balanced perfectly on just 3 of the 7 support st...
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Log Text: None
Trefin Modern Stone Circle
Date Added: 3rd Nov 2019
Site Type: Modern Stone Circle etc
Country: Wales (Pembrokeshire)
Visited: Yes on 5th Oct 2015. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5
Trefin Modern Stone Circle submitted by pab on 20th Jan 2008. Site in Pembrokeshire (Sir Benfro)
Across the circle to the bay - it may be modern, but it is a wonderfully pleasant spot to think away the modern world!
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Log Text: None
Gruta do Escoural
Date Added: 29th Oct 2019
Site Type: Cave or Rock Shelter
Country: Portugal (Évora)
Visited: Saw from a distance on 13th Oct 2019
Gruta do Escoural submitted by Magalhaes on 30th Apr 2006. Wall from the neolithic (?) settling, straight uphill from the cave.
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Log Text: Next I go for a quick look at the Escoural caves, which are all fenced off and locked up, with a sign telling how to book a visit with at least 24 hours notice. Hey Ho.
Anta-Capela de Nossa Senhora do Livramento
Date Added: 29th Oct 2019
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen
Country: Portugal (Évora)
Visited: Yes on 13th Oct 2019. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 3 Access 5
Anta-Capela de Nossa Senhora do Livramento submitted by Magalhaes on 15th Apr 2006. "Anta" of N S do Livramento
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Log Text: Several miles along a very narrow and twisty road, and I eventually arrived at the Anta-Capela de Nossa Senhora do Livramento, or Anta-Capela de São Brissos, which was one I really wanted to visit, the white painted dolmen now built into a chapel, complete with blue stripe around the bottom to keep the devil at bay.
Despite the satnav trying to take me somewhere else, I found it easy enough, and it has a small car park which had another three cars in it. Before I had even got out of my car, a bloke (French I think) from one of the other cars was over asking if I had the key to the chapel, and was most insistent that I should have it, not taking the fact that I am just an English tourist as an answer!
So as I gathered, the chapel was locked up, so could not get to see inside. It's a wierd and beautiful little place, and unlike that at Pavia, this has an extension built onto the back of the dolmen. There is one large stone laying beside the chapel, and traces of its entrance passageway.
Anta Herdade do Barrocal 1
Date Added: 29th Oct 2019
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen
Country: Portugal (Évora)
Visited: Yes on 13th Oct 2019. My rating: Condition 4 Ambience 4 Access 4
Anta Herdade do Barrocal 1 submitted by KenWilliams on 26th Feb 2007. The larger Barrorcal Anta, the second, smaller one is behind the trees to the right of that tower in the background.
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Log Text: From Evora it was time for my day hunting stones. Thankfully I had done much previous research, otherwise I would have found it extremely difficult. I struggled to get out of the walled city of Evora, round all the one way systems etc, but eventually after finding a place to stop, where I figured out how to use the satnav, and there was no looking back!
The next problem was how to locate the sites, as nothing is on any maps, and very little is signposted. However, with use of my previously prepared Google map of sites, and better phone coverage out here than most places at home, I was able to locate the road to these dolmens, where I realised that many of the roads are actually dirt and gravel tracks, and many seem to start from the main roads through gated entrances.
About threequarters of a km along the dirt track to Barrocal, and I see the old windmill and a place I can park, and then I see the dolmen just in the field to the right. There is a path to it, and it is well sited on the top of a hillock, a nicely complete dolmen with remains of its entrance passageway. It is not very picturesque today, grey skies threatening to rain, and the ground covered in scrub.
Museu Nacional de Arqueologia
Date Added: 29th Oct 2019
Site Type: Museum
Country: Portugal (Lisboa)
Visited: Yes on 11th Oct 2019. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 5
Museu Nacional de Arqueologia submitted by TheCaptain on 21st Oct 2019. The Portugese National Museum of Archaeology is in the building adjoined to the wonderful Mosteiro dos Jerónimos in Belem.
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Log Text: The Portugese National Museum of Archaeology is in the building adjacent to the wonderful Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. It is is the largest Archaeological museum in Portugal and one of the most important museums in the world devoted to ancient art found in the Iberian Peninsula.
We didn't have long here at the end of a busy day, but had a quick look around the fabulous display of ancient gold and other objects from prehistorical times, the Egyptian gallery and the large Lusitanian (Portugal in the times of the Romans) displays. This is somewhere which would justify many small visits or perhaps a whole day.
Nearby to the bag lockers are a couple of ancient standing stones, one with a large square spiral carving, and the other worked into a very phallic shape.
Menir dos Almendres
Date Added: 29th Oct 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir)
Country: Portugal (Évora)
Visited: Yes on 12th Oct 2019. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 4 Access 3
Menir dos Almendres submitted by TheCaptain on 28th Oct 2019. A walk around the Menir dos Almendres.
It casts a long shadow in the late afternoon sun
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Log Text: Driving towards Evora from Pavia, and after the town of Arraiolos, we see a large brown sign stating something like Recinto do megalithica, which I think is directions to a local megalithic cromlech. However, we see no further signs in the locality, and realise that perhaps the sign is for a megalithic tour drive. We find no other megalithic sites in the vicinity (this was before I figured out how this all works), and it ends up taking us out of the way to Almendres. However, the late afternoon light is fantastic, we still have an hour or so to spare, the others are fairly keen that we should go see it, and it would help me with my tomorrows megalithic tour route if we did visit this now.
After the village of Guadelupe there is an interpretation centre and shop, then it is several miles of dirt road, before a parking place and fenced footpath up to the beautifully shaped menhir, which is about 4 metres tall. It has a carving of a "crook" near to the top, and is apparently a marker for summer solstice sunrise from the cromlech. Pity about the grain silos.
Cromeleque dos Almendres
Date Added: 29th Oct 2019
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: Portugal (Évora)
Visited: Yes on 12th Oct 2019. My rating: Condition 5 Ambience 5 Access 4
Cromeleque dos Almendres submitted by Magalhaes on 15th Apr 2006. View from the top, roughly facing SE. Évora on the horizon (left).
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Log Text: From the menhir parking, travel a couple more kilometres along the dirt road, and there is a large parking place for the cromlech, a short walk further along. What a fabulous place, especially in the late afternoon golden sun.
Once a double circle of stones, it now appears to be rather unclear, but the approximately one hundred stones are fabulously shaped, several with carvings, but mostly very difficult to make out.
It's a busy place with lots of visitors, and rather like the Pied Piper, I gain a following of people (including several American's over here from Nashville), who want to know my knowledge of the place and for all my thoughts as to why it is here. They struggle with comprehending that it is over 6000 years old, as old to them is a hundred years!
As I later find with the other two cromlechs I visit, it is positioned on a hilltop position on the gently east facing slopes. Could this be something to do with watching the sunrise at these places? This is a place I could come back to again and again if it was local to me!
St George's Well (Padstow)
Date Added: 29th Oct 2019
Site Type: Holy Well or Sacred Spring
Country: England (Cornwall)
Visited: Yes on 5th Nov 2012
St George's Well (Padstow) submitted by theCaptain on 5th Nov 2012. St George's Cove is a sandy inlet on the western side of the Camel Estuary, about a kilometre or so north of Padstow.
A little stream runs down from the fields here onto the beach at the cove, and sometimes makes a pool or sometimes just dries up in the sands without directly reaching the sea.
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Log Text: None
Aguas Tuertas Dolmen
Date Added: 29th Oct 2019
Site Type: Burial Chamber or Dolmen
Country: Spain (Aragón)
Visited: Yes on 24th Dec 2017
Aguas Tuertas Dolmen submitted by TheCaptain on 24th Dec 2017. From hikepyrenees.
In an area called Aguas Tuertas (twisted waters) between the valleys of Hecho and Canfranc is a large flat col that a stream meanders through giving the area it’s name. A dolmen stands at the col in a fabulous location and although it’s only small most people say it’s the prettiest in the region. It’s dated back to 3000 BC and legends say the dolmen is home to the spirits of the region that control access across the pass.
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Log Text: None
Roche Rock
Date Added: 29th Oct 2019
Site Type: Rock Outcrop
Country: England (Cornwall)
Visited: Yes on 6th Nov 2012
Roche Rock submitted by theCaptain on 6th Nov 2012. Passing on the way to visit the Eden Project, the rock and chapel were lit up by the most amazing silvery sunlight against a dark grey sky.
By the time I had stopped the car and got out, it had gone. I waited a while, and took a couple of pictures, some of which have it fairly well lit, but not so good as the initial view!
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Log Text: None
Cerrig Arthur
Date Added: 29th Oct 2019
Site Type: Stone Circle
Country: Wales (Gwynedd)
Visited: Yes on 3rd Jan 2018
Cerrig Arthur submitted by TheCaptain on 3rd Jan 2018. View of Cerrig Arthur in its surroundings
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Log Text: None
Longstone (St Mabyn)
Date Added: 29th Oct 2019
Site Type: Standing Stone (Menhir)
Country: England (Cornwall)
Visited: Yes on 6th Nov 2012
Longstone (St Mabyn) submitted by theCaptain on 6th Nov 2012. The stone stands just over a metre tall and is fairly flat, and nicely presented.
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Cefn Bryn Great Cairn
Date Added: 29th Oct 2019
Site Type: Round Cairn
Country: Wales (West Glamorgan)
Visited: Yes on 4th Jan 2018
Cefn Bryn Great Cairn submitted by TheCaptain on 4th Jan 2018. Despite being a beautiful June day, there was some very boggy areas when approaching this cairn.
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