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Allee-Couverte
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On the drive back up to our cottage in northern Brittany, we took a minor detour through Les Monts d'Arree, to find the magnificent allee couverte of Mougau Bihan. I'd seen it in various books and regularly dribbled over it. Now it was time to see it!
It's on the edge of the village of Commana, resting quietly in a meadow under some apple trees. It's obviously a popular monument because it even had it own car park.
It's 14ms long and is to my eye at least as near a perfect 'classic' allee couverte as you could wish for, with one long chamber, a terminal cell and five contiguous capstones. Several of the uprights have been carved inside with stylised axes, crooks and so on. I found it easy to imagine the whole of the inside of the tomb painted with umbers and ochres in lines and random shapes. (I have no evidence for this, by the way...)
As we admired this spectacular construction, I found it slightly unnerving to be whistled at continuously by an African grey parrot hopping around in a cage outside a farm cottage next door.
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Posted by Jane
11th October 2009ce
Edited 11th October 2009ce
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