Untill recently the Tumulus de Kercado was the oldest dated megalithic site in Europe, conservative carbon dating putting it at around 4800BCE. The single chamber is reached through a low passage which is clearly distinguishable from the chamber itself. This layout points to the tumulus being very early in the Breton passage graves sequence.
About 2000 years after its construction a stone circle was added surrounding the original tumulus, as if to preserve its importance in the, then, modern age. This reverence, and the fact that the tumulus sits at the highest point in the area (hence the huge water tower next door) leads one the believe that the Tumulus de Kercado was possible the most important site in Carnac for many centuries. The water tower is a useul reference, sticking up above the more recent trees. It shows that in Neolthic times and beyond the tumulus would have been clearly visible from all over the Carnac region.
The tumulus is in the grounds of manor house and in private care. A small child or an honestly box will charge you about a euro for the pleasure of entrance but if you visit in the early morning you will almost certainly have the place pretty much to yourself, even in high season. However if you visit in the afternoon you will have the advantage of being able to pop into the creperie to pancake yourself up for the next site.
Latest Fieldnotes
July 29, 2007
Do you know the way to Barnenez?
I’ve never been so
I may go wrong and lose my way
Do you know the way to Barnenez?
I’m going there to find a great big cairn in Barnenez
Allee couverts and some dolmens
See a whole bunch if you’ve got a car
In an hour, maybe two, you’ll get quite far
Don’t go too fast or they’ll quickly pass
And all the stones are lying there amid the gorse for you to find
I’ve got lots of photos from Barnenez
Wo oh oh-oh, oh-oh oh-oh
Can’t wait to get back to Barnenez
Wo oh oh-oh, oh-oh oh-oh
Do you know the way to Barnenez?
Côtes du Nord on a wild, wet Wednesday. Sane people do not go out in weather such as we experienced that day: grey skies and steady rain coming in at a slant with the occasional hailstorm. Sane people especially do not take expensive digital SLR cameras outside in these conditions. Welcome to the madhouse. Welcome to Barnenez, just 40 miles west from our cottage up on the north coast of Brittany.
Barnenez will make you gasp in wonder.
It’s so big and grand, this one has a visitor centre and mighty glad of it we were, too, as a shelter from the storm. 75metres long and with twelve burial chambers within its stony step-pyramid mound this is a beast and reminded me strongly of an out-size Camster grey cairn combined with Egypt’s Saqqara pyramid.
During its excavation and reconstruction, a huge chunk was left missing deliberately to expose the manner of construction.
Four of the burial chambers are open to visitors the others are walled up. Each chamber has a different manner of construction – corbelled vaulting, dolmen-type chamber, side slabs only, etc. Inside the visitor centre are some of the carved, decorated stones found within the cairn which are very intriguing – one looks like a sheaf of corn. There are also some cracking photographs of the cairn before, during and after its excavation and examples of the finds – beads, pottery, axes – discovered there.
We drove back east from Barnenez towards Lannion – there are lots of sites to see round here including many alleé couverts and menhirs.
Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 165.
Access: Good paths to the cemetery, which isn’t far from the carpark. Once among the graves there are no paths but nice smooth grass. The site is on a very distinct slope, so may be quite ‘hard work’ for some people to get back to the top from the bottom!
Lindholm Høje is in the northern suberbs of Aalborg. The route Julian gives in TME looks a little longer than a more direct route, but having started to try to find my own way, I think he may have recommended it because it’s simpler & doesn’t get you ‘caught up’ in more complicated bits of Aalborg.
Leave the E45 at junction 21 and head towards Aabybro on the 11. It is pretty well signposted from the 11, but you need to take a left (south) at Hvorup. Continue along this road (Gamel Hvorupvej) for less than 2km, turning right onto Vendilavej where you will find the carpark for the site.
Visited 6 April 2006
I was expecting quite a lot from Lindholm Høje and wasn’t disappointed! A huge selection of about 700 graves probably ranging from the bronze-age to around 1000ce.
The oldest graves are the triangular settings (for males) and the oval or rectangular (for women) and are mainly found towards the top of the hill. Spread over the hillside there are also 140 later Viking ship-settings and overall, the variety is fascinating.
In TME, Julian recommends the museum & coffee-shop, but unfortunately when I visited, the museum was shut. The coffee-shop was open, but I had a lot more to see today...!
A spectacular place though!
Access: A very short walk of a few metres from the road.
Ringlehøj i Snave Skov langdysse is on Langeland. Cross the bridge to Langeland and travel just over 2.5km along the 9. Take a left turn (north) onto the 305 towards Tullebølle, Tranekær and Lohals.
Travel along the 305, passing Bjerrebygaard and going through Tullebølle to Frellesvig. I estimate this is just over 5km from the junction with the 9. Take the left turn (NW) to Frellesvig and then left again (west) to head for the forestry.
At first the trees are only on your left (south), but about 100m after they are on both sides, you should find the monument through the trees on your left – I think there’s a sign.
7 April 2006
An impressive but badly damaged monument, it still has quite a few of its kerbstones, but the chamber stones are badly deranged.
The remaining mound is pretty long (60 metres), but looks as if its height has been drastically reduced and its profile has become blended into the ridge it seems to be built on.
Well worth a visit on a sunny day – a peaceful and relaxing spot. I reckon it’d be pretty drab & depressing in bad weather though!
It’s 32 feet tall, damnit!
Access: Walk of something like 50 metres gently uphill across (ploughed when we visited) field.
Very near Dyssekammer i Herslev – on the west of the 305 about 500 metres further south. I think there was a signpost and ‘official’ parking place but can’t quite remember. If not, it was certainly easy to park on the same side of the road as the monument.
Visited 7 April 2006
A bit of a showcase site this one! And it deserves it because it’s beautiful – not perfectly preserved by any means, but very nice.
A very short passage (nowadays anyway) and a long low accessible chamber set in a pretty dramatic steep mound. Assuming that it was originally completely covered by its mound, this may have been even larger.
Approximate long/lat coordinates, as I couldn’t see the site among the trees on the aerial photomap. Shouldn’t be too far out though and is on a waymarked path through woods.
Access: A pleasant walk of 0.5-0.75km through woodland from carpark.
We took the 305 south across Langeland as far as Lindelse, taking a left (east) to Hennetved about halfway through the village. As the road enters Hennetved, you can bear right or left – take the left (east) and after around 100 metres, take another left (onto Kågårdsvej).
Follow this for around 2.5km and turn right (south) towards the woods and into the carpark in the woods.
Check out the info boards for the colour-coded waymarked paths and if you’re as lucky as we were, there may even be leaflets with a map. Follow the paths to the monument in the SE of the woods.
Visited 7 April 2006
In a tiny glade sits a (fairly) tiny bronze-age stone boat setting of low stones. It’s not that spectacular, but there aren’t actually all that many skibssætnings around.
As a result, although not nearly as spectacular as Glavendrup on Fyn, this place is worth searching out if you have time. Very pretty with the sun through the trees dappling the stones.
Access: Carpark right next to the monument.
Hohøj is at Mariager, near Hørbo, which is about halfway between Århus and Aalborg. We actually went here from Tustrup, but from the E45, I’d say you need to get off at junction 36 to avoid having to go through the town and simply follow the 555 to Mariager.
Once on the 555 and heading east, keep an eye out just past Katbjerg, as you will be passing the Katbjerg complex – don’t miss it, as I thought Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund was one of the best 3 or 4 sites we saw!
Continue east and you will find that after about 3.5km, the road turns left (north) towards Mariager, and after about 500m enters some trees. Soon after these trees, take a right at the roundabout onto Klostergade. If you miss this, it gets complicated – we did, so we know!
Klostergade meanders into the town, and you could probably take a shortcut to the right if you had a good map. We didn’t however, so I’m going to send you the way we went, as we know it works. At a distinct bend right, you will pass Kirkegaden – you need to take the next left (in fact it may feel like just following the same road) onto Kirkegade.
At the end of Kirkegade, turn right onto Teglgade and then right again almost straight away onto Torvet which becomes Fuglesangsgade and then Havndalvej, climbing the hill. Follow this for a little over 1.5km, taking a right onto HohøjSkovvej as you enter trees. The carpark and Hohøj are off this to the right after about 0.5km.
Visited 4 April 2006
Blimey, it’s big!!!! The largest høj in Denmark is 12 metres high and 72 metres across at the base. They’re just numbers though – take a look at the picture of Jane standing at the top to get a real idea of it. It feels considerably ‘more Silbury than West Kennett’! (Of course, it’s still nowhere near as big as Silbury.)
Other than just the impressiveness in terms of size, there’s only really one other attraction to Hohøj – the views, which are stunning. Unfortunately, I found it impossible to really capture them in photos, so you’ll just have to go and see for yourself....
The little seaside town of St Pierre Quiberon is home to two fabulous monuments: the St Pierre alignments, which nestle comfortably like a park in the urban setting and within a couple of hundred metres of these alignments is the WONDERFUL Kerbourgnec cromlech.
St Pierre Quiberon town felt very like my home town of Stratford on Avon, satisfied with itself, charming and much-loved by visitors Indeed, if you transported all the stones from West Kennet Avenue to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre gardens, this gives you an idea of the feeling emanating from this monument. The three or four rows of stones (23 in total) were very Avebury-like in size and shape.
Like this one a lot.
A few hundred metres west of Le Tribunal, up a bit on a rise lies the charming but a bit crumbly allee couverte of La Four Sarrazin
It had one or two underwhelming cup marks on it, but no intriguing carvings of swirls or zigzags, ‘breasts’ or chevrons. From up here there are some magical views back over the heath, with the tallest stones of Chateau Bû poking up from above the gorse.
Within shouting distance from La Croix de St Pierre cairn (Le Dolmen West) rather than spitting distance, is Le Tribunal cromlech. This wide horseshoe of zebra-stripey stones swings around from the south of the path. Each stone is so carefully chosen and positioned they each invite special consideration.
Having recently seen all the crazy carved stones at Gavrinis a couple of days before, it occurred to me that the builders of this site, instead of laboriously carving all those motifs into the rock, instead went out and sought stones which already had a natural decoration.
The position of this arc of stones, within metres of the graves of revered ancestors and with a name hinting at tribal law, it felt like a very important meeting place within the Saint-Just complex. But this isn’t the end of the affair. keep going west and there are still more monuments to discover!
There are three rows here, separated only by metres, but all have a distinct ambiance, north, south and west.
Some 50 metres away from the south row are the third, western alignments which consist of the same white, quartzy, sugar lumps as the northern alignments.
Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 160.
Access: Good – carpark very close to monument. On the Mols peninsula, fairly near Århus.
From the E45 , we left at junction 44 to avoid getting too ‘involved’ in Århus – not knowing what traffic would be like there. We headed east on the 587, hitting the 15 just north of Løgten, following the 15 to go to Rønde.
From Rønde we headed south towards Egens & Vrinners. After about 3km, we took a right to Vrinners and then on to Knebel. At Knebel turn left, signposted Agri 3 (according to Julian in TME). The monument is just under 1km along this road, on the right – you can’t miss it!
Visited 6 April 2006
This was one of the sites that had really captured both me & Jane on practically our first glance through The Megalithic European.
In the ‘flesh’, it certainly lived up to the anticipation!
A beautifully proportioned and beautifully positioned thing, rather than dominating from a hilltop, it nestles at the bottom of a gently sweeping valley.
Neatly denuded, the runddysse features a spectacular kerb and nicely preserved chamber – apparently there is evidence that there were originally 2 chambers, which accounts for why the existing one is not central.
Jane wandered around taking in the stones & looking for an angle to paint from, while I headed up the hillside to the south and then the north to properly check out the monument’s landscape.
A fantastic couple of hours & then off to catch as many of the numerous monuments in the surrounding area as we could!
Access: See Ormhøj.
Visited 4 April 2006
I want to cry!!! (See Ormhøj for explanation.) Jordhøj and Ormhøj look like real beauties, but we had no time....
If you’re lucky enough to visit, the only information I’ve found is that Jordhøj has a passage 6 metres long and it was excavated in the 1890s. Finds of earthenware post and flint knives are in the Danish National Museum (Copenhagen).
It looks as though you can get into the chamber(s).
Access: Area to park right next to Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund.
Katbjerg is on the 555 between Hørbo and Mariager. Hørbo is about halfway between Århus and Aalborg. We actually went here from Hohøj at Mariager, but from the E45, I’d say you need to get off at junction 36 to avoid having to go through the town and simply follow the 555 towards Mariager.
Once on the 555 and heading east, the Katbjerg complex is just past the village of Katbjerg, on the left (north). Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund was one of the best 3 or 4 sites we saw in Denmark and one of the ‘best’ long barrows I have ever seen!
Visited 4 April 2006 Complex consisting of Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund – a superb langdysse (long barrow), Rishøj – a dug-out barrow (probably a runddysse, or round barrow), and Jordhøj and Ormhøj – 2 more complete-looking barrows that we only saw from a distance, due to time constraints.
12:07:03ce
Almost a year and a half after I came here with Julian Cope I have returned to Vieux Moulin. I’d forgotten just how effective the illusion the stones create is. As one approaches one is sure that there are four stones n this short, solitary row. Only when the approach angle changes slightly can one see that in fact there are six.
I remain unconvinced by Aubrey Burl’s ‘slight curve’ and it seems to me this was only ever as it is now. These shortish stone rows are indeed an riddle. They enclose no space, they do not seem precise enough to facilitate astronomical observations, so what were they for? I think the clue may lie in the fact that many of these rows are (relatively) isolated and away from large ritual centres. In that one can read that, like so many of the smaller dolmens, these were monuments for a small community. The village chapel for day to day use away from the great cathedral of Carnac.
It almost seems that one can try to read to much into these type of monuments, trying to find reason or purpose, in the end I think it goes back to the mountaineer’s answer; why did they put up the stones? Because they were there…
12:07:03ce
I came here for two reasons, firstly because I have not been here for two years and on that occasion I took no notes and secondly to try and find the second dolmen claimed to be to the north of here. I have already failed on the second count as I traipsed around much high gorse and heather and found nothing.
So now to Mane Croch, I now remember why I liked this place so much the last time and how my photos did it no justice. A long passage leads to a chamber that it transepted into four. The stones are all of a lovely chunky local granite. No mound covers this dolmen now and there is no capstone over the centre of the four chambers. It could be that this part of the roof was corbelled and that this site was a mixture of those two construction methods, both common in the area. In fact at nearby Mané Braz the roof is formed by a sort of ‘mega-corbelling’.
The layout of this monument is clearly similar to UK sites such as West Kennet long barrow and I like to believe that the dolmens of the Carnac area were a direct influence on those of southern England.
Fifteen miles or so to the south east of the city of Rennes, near Essé is one of France’s most famous prehistoric monuments: the super-sized La Roche-aux-Fées.
Well-signposted from the main roads and now with its own small village close by, this colossal construction is more megalithic hall than over-sized allée couverte. Indeed, the size of its groundplan is pretty much the same size as the ground plan of our house.
We’ve all seen pictures in guidebooks and on the telly of famous iconic buildings throughout the world; the Taj Mahal, the Alhambra Palace, the Giza Pyramids, Angkor Wat, and so on. But just like all those places, the familiarity with them doesn’t lessen the impact when you stand face-to-face with them.
And so it was for me at La Roche-aux-Fées on this miserable chucking-it-down April day. It is jaw-droppingly vast; made up of 40 giant slabs of purple cambrian schist, obtained from at least 5kms away. Its six gigantic capstones weigh between 40 to 50 tonnes each. Surely this wasn’t only ever a tomb? Today it wasn’t.
Today it served as a wonderful and roomy shelter from the pelting rain, a place for me to sit, think quietly and sketch; have a cuppa and feel its stones enclose me and protect from the dreary outside world.
The large car park suggests hundreds of visitors come here in good weather but today it was almost entirely ours. I wasn’t going to be rushed here. Feeling safe and dry inside, I got out my paints and make a little sketch. I loved the way the damp stones glistened in the wet and made the massive slabs hanging above my head seem to loom even larger still.
Approximate long/lat coordinates, as I couldn’t see the site among the trees on the aerial photomap. Shouldn’t be too far out though, and there is a signpost and a path through woods.
Access: A short walk fairly gently uphill, about 50 metres at the most from the road.
Very near monuments in the woods near Frellesvig on Langeland. From the 305 heading north, pass Frellesvig and continue to Tranekær. The 305 zigzags through the village, you need a right as the 305 bends reasonably sharply left, right in the middle of the village.
This is Stengadevej and heads south. It may be signposted Ryttermose and/or Stengade, but I don’t think there are any roads you could mistake for it! Follow this for just over 1km and as the road reaches woodland, look out for a left turn (west) to the woods (called Bukkeskovvej).
After about 500 metres, the road turns sharply left (north). Almost immediately there is a jættestue sign and a small layby on the right. A path leads up the hill into the woods to the monument.
7 April 2006
Cool! Despite being quite badly damaged, this one’s a corker!
As you approach, the monument looks pretty underwhelming, but you only see it from the back at first – and yes, it’s pretty ‘second-hand’!
The capstones are missing, as is much of the mound, but both passages and chambers of the double-jættestue are otherwise largely intact. So is most of a fairly impressive kerb on the east (entrance) side of the barrow and the southern end.
This means that as well as being an interesting monument from the point of view of the double passages and chambers, its back view makes it look worse than it is.
It’s actually pretty good-looking from the front! Both passages are short, but the chambers are sizeable – in fact the northern one is huge.
Access: Area to park right next to Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund. Walk for around 100 metres along the edge of a field the west of Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund. When we were there, the field was ploughed and the small ‘verge’ at the edge is pretty uneven underfoot.
Visited 4 April 2006
Disappointing when arriving straight from the gem that is Kongehøjen ved Voldstedlund, in many other contexts this would be a pleasing site.
Though dug out around the chamber, the mound is large and enough of the chamber stones are intact to give more than a semblance of what the monument was.
Kong Humbles Grav is in all the guidebooks as the most fabulous langdysse with exposed chambers in Langeland. So what we couldn’t understand was the place that Julian’s instructions took us to in TME…a most underwhelming, crescent shaped long embankment on top of a huge grassy mound overlooking the town of Humble, opposite the church.
Moth and I couldn’t believe it. We were embarrassed to have taken our friends after the major build-up we’d given it. Something was wrong. We left disappointed and highly suspicious.
As I drove us to our next monument, Moth checked other guidebooks, including the Oldtidsminder På Langeland by Jens Bech of Langelands Museum and Jens Kortermann, a jewel among guidebooks (text all in Danish) but with brilliant maps and drawings.
Oops Julian! If you’re reading this, I’m afraid you screwed up, sweetie. The underwhelming earthwork you call Kong Humbles Grav on page 168 of TME is no such thing.
Don’t be fooled!
We found the *REAL* Kong Humbles Grav with not too much trouble. Here’s how to get there. Drive past the church and turn down the first farm track to the left, towards a beautifully kept pink and blue farm house with a monster yellow barn. Park here, put your money in the honesty box and walk north behind the white barn and follow the track through the field. Here is Kong Humbles Grav – a magnificent long barrow with squared off ends and lots of good kerbstones.
The main chamber in the middle is an exposed dolmen in superb condition.
Straw had been put on the ground in the chamber so I shot in, not only to get out of the bitter wind and the threat of rain but because it really was delightfully hygge in there!
Featured in The Megalithic European (TME) page 159, under the name Spanskhøj, see below.
Access: Park at farm near monument. Walk of a few hundred metres, at most, across grassy paths between cultivated fields.
Snibhøj and Spanskhøj are not far from the E45, leaving it at junction 34 near Hørbo, which is about halfway between Århus and Aalborg. Head west on the 29 (aka 541). Take the 2nd turning to the left after around 1.5-2km, towards Hannerup & Snæbum. Julian says it’s signposted ‘Rojdrup 2’.
Travel along this road for around 2.5km and then it meets Hannerupvej at an acute angle. Turn right onto Hannerupvej, through the village, taking a right towards Hvilsom onto Hvilsomvej as you approach the west end.
Very soon, the road bends left and you need to park in the yard of the next farm on the left. We were greeted by a friendly woman with a torch and some leaflets (even including some English text!)
Visited 4 April 2006
Firstly, the confusion over the name. The leaflet we were given (or we may have had to pay a little for it, I can’t remember) makes it clear. It says that Snibhøj is the one with access and the one with the denuded tomb next to it.
Perhaps significantly, in his 1972 book Discovering Archaeology in Denmark, James Dyer calls both tombs (and the nearby denuded one) ‘Spanskhøj’.
Whatever it’s called, it’s a fantastic place! A huge mound with 2 separate chambers large enough for us (both 5’ 8”) to stand up in, and each with their own entrance passage alongside each other.
In fact, all 3 tombs (this, Spanskhøj & the trashed one) have the double passage & chambers. We didn’t see any others like them on our trip.
Interestingly, when excavated, Snibhøj’s chambers were completely free of earth because any gaps between chamber stones had been sealed with small stones. The chambers contained about 50 skeletons, of which 18 were 16 or younger.
Dated at around 3,200bc, the condition of the monument – especially the passages & chambers – is wonderful. It’s also quite cool to be able to inspect the denuded tomb, which acts like a groundplan!
Access: Area to park right next to the monument and fairly even, flat grassed area around the monument.
Visited 4 April 2006
Amazing! This should be a showcase site – it’s probably the ‘best’ long barrow I’ve ever seen, anywhere. It’s long, high and virtually complete, has 2 chambers with access and a truly spectacular retaining kerb with stones up to 3 metres tall!
One chamber is larger than the other (I can’t remember which!) and is a bit easier to get into, though the squeeze through the passage is fairly tight even for a 5’ 8"er. Once inside though, the chamber is, I think, around 2 metres high (in places at least). Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of this one, as Jane was using the camera.
The passage to the smaller chamber is a real ‘crawler’, as you may be able to see from one of our photographs, but is just as rewarding as the larger one.
The langdysse was ‘partially excavated’ in 1960 and I wonder if it was restored at the same time, as it is so pristine. The tiny amount of information I was able to find online in English was very brief. The only other thing it said was that finds of middle-neolithic pottery and flint knives are in the Danish National Museum (Copenhagen).
A short walk from here to Rishøj which I’m afraid is not in such good condition, but well worth a look.