Latest Fieldnotes

After a fairly long walk through the woods past some freindly horses in a field, we come to a stone rectangle, after seeing so many stone circles back home this rectangle was a real oddity that I just had to inspect in fine detail.
The stones are fairly low 1 to 2 feet at most, except two on one of the long sides which look like an entrance, if a little constricted .Apparently restored quite recently. Only yards away is the Giant of Manio, a real whopper

long and large the moustoir tumulus sits by the roadside, masquarading as just another carnac monument but is more interesting than most, for several reasons. The mound is surmounted by a 6-7ft tall menhir with another similar sized stone just yards away at it’s side, and yet another across the field beyond. one chamber and two cists are to be found, the entrance at the side nearest the road goes to the chamber and the cists are accessed from on top of the tumulus. It was mid summer 2003 when we visited and the place was almost overgrown but definately worth a visit especially after all those mind numbing rows of menhirs

These two long barrows are about a hundred yards apart. They are in good condition and are large in size. Slightly to the north of the eastern most barrow is a small low round barrow. Although it can be seen, the nearby settlement site is very overgrown at the moment and probably needs to be seen in winter.

More than ten rows stretching for more than a kilomtere about 982 menhirs many re-erected by Zacharie Le Rouzic, only interupted by a couple of houses one of which is a shop selling yummy ice cream and a ruined windmill, which you can climb the stairs inside to get a good overview of the rows.
I first saw pictures of these rows when I was a child in a book of ancient wonders, and wanted to see them as much as any pyramid, they are indeed wonders .

On our motohoming odyssey we saw more than twenty sites but this was the most spectacular. The car park was nigh on full because of a summer fayre or something (games, stalls, etc)
Yep there was lots of local people there but because they live with this Loire type dolmen they can almost ignore it and get on with the party. It was a beautiful summers afternoon the light shone through the leaves in that wonderful way that it does and all was perfect.
The entrance is amazing, the lintel is perfectly horizontal and low enough to make you stoop or bow to enter but then the capstones soar way above you. No finds of any kind were found here no burials or anything which just deepens the mystery surrounding this place. The entrance faces the mid-winter solstice

We were staying at a camp site nearby after a day on Mont St Michel
and arrived at the stone about 7.30pm. Only one family of Germans interupted our inspection of the menhir.,though there was enough stone for everyone, menhir isn’t enough word for this one, back home I call 6ft a tall one, this is a stone spacerocket ready to take off at any moment. Quite simply the biggest stone Iv’e ever seen . At the stones foot is a little boulder shined black from centuries of bums.
Awsome !!!

Trebalugaret is one of the oldest talaiots on the island according to its sign, and is built on the remains of a pre-talaiotic construction.

One of the easiest to climb, there are the remains of the walls and pillars of a house at the top, though these are thought to have been added at a later date. The site has been enclosed by a modern wall, and houses are creeping up along one side.

Free and open access.

Wow! And wow again!

If you visit just one site on the island, make it this one. It’s just north of Montuiri, which is quite central on the island so not far from anywhere. The site is reasonably well signposted, and it’s only 50 metres or so from the narrow gate to a parking spot under some trees. No entrance fee, and a completely blank information board.

The first area has two talaiots. Talaiot number 1, the first you reach but the one on the left in my panoramic-ish photo is magnificent – 17 metres in diameter with a huge central pillar, a side chamber big enough to climb into, and a 5 metre entrance passage to negotiate. Both talaiots have pillared rooms surrounding them, and talaiot 2 has very distinct internal steps.

In the next field SSE there’s a circular building with a series of rooms beyond it.

But, to the north, there’s a huge circular platform built up from the surrounding land, with a series of wide stone steps leading down from the north west towards the track below.

The site is being excavated periodically but was completely deserted when we were there; spend a day here, go to the museum in Montuiri too.

South of, and signposted from, the village of Arta in the east of the island.
If you are visiting out of season check the opening times first. The site has a car park; the entrance fee was 1,55 euros (2006) and a guide leaflet just over 2 euros. The hut where you pay also sells postcards, ice creams etc.

This is a walled settlement – with a very impressive entrance – built around a central talaiot with a series of rooms around it, and another group of rooms to the west. It’s all neatly laid out with a suggested route and information boards for each element.

A visit to this site had been very highly recommended – and despite having the place almost to ourselves, with dappled sunlight filtering through the oak trees, it didn’t inspire me that day .... though anything would have struggled to do so after Son Fornes the previous day.

Probably the strangest site I’ve visited. There may be a path up to here from Hollywood village but I couldn’t find one (I didn’t look too hard). I parked at the junction at N952035 and headed up the steep way.

This is on the St. Kevin’s Way and that may account for the sculptured chair (with teddy) that I encountered on arrival. St. Kevin’s Chair and St. Kevin’s Bed are features below in Hollywood glen. At first I thought that someone had brought up an ordinary wooden chair in a kind of Flann O’Brien gesture, but no, this is actually a metal chair, sculptured and painted so well that it wasn’t until I touched it that I realised that it was metal. It’s placed on a promonotory below the cairn with fantastic views to the south-west and west. Wacky!

On to the cairn itself. It’s been robbed out. It’s quite large, 25 metres on the longer axis with evidence of multiple cists/burials. There’s a little church-like structure on the west end, constructed with no little skill in what I reckon is an attempt to christianise the site. Near the centre is what I take to be the remains of a central burial with a large capstone. This has been robbed out and thrown back together again.

The all round views from up here are great. Poulaphouca reservoir glistens to the north-east, you can see the ESB power-station on Turlough Hill to the east, Church mountain with its cairn is to the south and the mad expanse of west Wicklow and what seems like all of Kildare, Offaly and Laois are to the west.

A confession – we never actually visited this one! It’s two structures, one of which is a circular talaiot.

Our instructions were courtesy of Babelfish and with “In the highway of Son Cervera to Cala Rajada, in lands of golf of It polishes, one is in a small alongside same hill of the highway, in its right side” it’s not surprising we didn’t look the right way until the last day when we didn’t have time to stop.

The joy of Google Earth has located it!

Driven past this a number of times recently (currently working nearby), and will endeavour to bring a camera with me soon and get some photos.

The Clach a’Mheirlich or ‘Thief’s Stone’ (Pictish Symbol Stone Class 1) stands in a field by the Alness to Invergordon road. On the front is an incised step symbol and on the left side what appear to be the traces of a crescent symbol with a pair of pincers below.

Park in the ‘Public slipway’ car park. The stone is about 20m into the field across the road.

We thought we’d have a go and look for some monuments we’d spotted on the map at Belz, a seaside village a few kilometers away. We had only a not very detailed map and my megalithic radar to guide us. We subsequently discovered these don’t even feature in Burl’s ‘Megalithic Brittany’, so we were pleased to have found two of the three marked on the map.

Urban dolmens! I love ‘em. Forgotten but not gone, these dolmen at Belz (east) were actually two burial chambers.

Only one still has capstones up, the other, directly next to it, just has a few uprights left marking the line of the chamber. It is situated on high ground overlooking the sea on a village greeny area.

Survivors!!

We thought we’d have a go and look for some monuments we’d spotted on the map at Belz, a seaside village a few kilometres away. We had only a not-very-detailed map and my megalithic radar to guide us. We subsequently discovered these don’t even feature in Burl’s ‘Megalithic Brittany’, so we were pleased to have found two of the three marked on the map.

Driving around a bit around the village a bit, we located this Belz dolmen (west) up to its knees in soaking wet buttercups on a patch of land occupying an entire building plot among the houses.

Around the village of Erdeven are tons of goodies. Call me undedicated if you like, but the combination of the weather being so horrible, the lack of time for painting opportunities and the prospect of a very wet 2km walk to see more stuff, didn’t appeal. Moth, being a completist wasn’t going to miss a thing, so he set off from the car park at Erdeven and began his walk to take in the Kerjean alignments, Kerherzo alignments, Mane Braz dolmens, Coet er bein and La Chaisse de Cesar. I stayed in car, driving it up to a place to get a good view of the Kerherzo alignments.

I lit a fag, got out a flask of tea and my sketchbook and while munching on a pain au chocolat, made a little study.

Just about 500ms away from Crucuno quadrilateral up among some trees is Mane Groh dolmen – a lovely allee couverte with four transepted chambers and lots of capstones still up. A little stone cist, not unlike a water trough for horses, stands very close by.

This is a very large long barrow sited a few hundred yards north of Bincombe bumps. It is behind a dry stone wall and is in excellent condition, with no signs of excavation or ploughing. It is not easy to photograph at this time of the year due to the crops in the surrounding fields, and the fact that is behind a dry stone wall.

The rectangle is a mystery to me. Like the rectangle at Manio, which we saw the day before, this is something that I couldn’t get my head around. Stone CIRCLES make more sense to me, partly cos I’ve seen tons of ‘em, so to see an alternative shape is very peculiar. The stones are large here (average of five or six feet high, I’d say) and the corners very precise. Recently cleared of its gorsey undergrowth I paced round it, trying to make sense of the lines and the corners and failing.

Signposted off the main Mao to Cuitadella Road, about 3km before Alaior and very near the navetas Rafal Rubi and l’Argentina Oriental. When you turn off the main road, after a sharp bend to your left, you’ll see a copse of trees – the monument is here. There are two gates, and through the second one you’ll see the blue “menorca monumental” bin showing you that you are in the right place. If you get to some of the very nice villas on your right, you’ve gone too far!

On the north west coast of the island; approaching Cuitadella from Mao on the main road, turn left as signposted just on the outskirts of Cuitadella and follow the road to the coast.

When you reach Cala Morell, turn left at the roundabout at the top of the cliff and head down towards the beach – the necropolis is on your left as the road bends right, and there are parking places just before that on the right, overlooking the beautiful bay. Open access, no fee.

It was quite busy when we visited, though many fellow visitors weren’t venturing into the caves at all.

If you are picking up a hire car at the airport, or indeed dropping one off, spend a few extra minutes checking this out, right next to the car park! The site was removed and restored as Jane says, to make room for the runway extension, but if you go to the south end of the runway (by road of course!) you’ll find what was left behind – also posted as an “original location“.

As you come out of the airport, you can’t really miss Biniparraxtet (also known as Biniparraxtet Petit), relocated and restored in order to extend the runway... but not all of it was moved! A wrong turning (at Binissafullet) meant we ended up right under the flight path at the south end of the runway, and I spotted one of those blue signs....

Hidden behind a huge wire fence, there’s the remains, and there’s a talaiot a few metres NNE, almost scraping the landing gear of the planes coming in.

There’s a second, ruinous talaiot just behind the impressive one at Torrellonet. The site marked by a blue menorca monumental sign, but what appears to be an entrance has been blocked, or repaired! Round the back of the main talaiot, there were a couple of silos with added junk.

We thought we’d be polite and ask at the farm if it was OK to cross the fields opposite and check out the remains of a house, listed as a possible sanctuary in TME; it seemed the only word we had in common with the elderly lady in the farmyard was “Torrello” but we guessed she’d got the gist of what we wanted and wouldn’t mind us going ahead.

Recommendation: instead of taking the direct route to the house, over some wobbly walls, go to the left and keep the copse on your right – there’s gates!

If you’ve got the AA map of the island, beware, this is marked on it, but in the wrong place – go west to the next junction, and you’ll find the poblat right alongside the road.

It’s hard to work this site out in places – there’s the obvious taula and talaiot visible from the road, but behind them there’s a jumble of stone from the surrounding houses. The information board was trashed when we were there.

Approximate long/lat coordinates only, as we were taken (in the end) to the site & Na Comerma by someone who knew where they were!

Access: A walk of a few hundred metres after parking in a ‘back entrance’ to Torre d’en Gaumes a few hundred metres south of the main entrance.

For road directions to here, see Torre d’en Gaumes.

From there, we walked a few metres south down the lane (away from Torre d’en Gaumes). We went through the first gate on the left (east side of the lane). I’m afraid this is where it gets difficult!

From the gate we headed a few hundred yards diagonally right – roughly SSE, and amongst the dry stone walls & scrubby bushes, we found the tomb.

Visited 3 June 2005
A little beauty (actually, not that little!) this is one of the very few more ‘standard’ megalithic tombs on Menorca (only 4, I think I read somewhere!)

It’s the only one we saw, but one of the others is pretty near Torre Llisa Vell. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find it.