Latest Fieldnotes

La Crau is a flat plain to the east of Arles, a landscape much beloved of Vincent van Gogh: rich farmland criss-crossed by canals, farmtracks and a railway line. To the north east are the Alpilles, a chain of limestone mountains, rich in bauxite. The first mountain is the Mont de Cordes which rises solitary from the plain and was once an island, and it’s overlooked by another limestone ridge of Montmajour, on which was built a huge ugly fortress of an abbey, which dominates the view. The area is not only significant for me from a Vincent van Gogh point of view, but also because it holds a number of important, secret, prehistoric sites. As we were to discover many of these were ‘acces interdit’.

There are five monuments in the so-called Arles-Fontvieille group (because they lie beteen Arles and Fontvieille): the grotte des Fees on the Mont de Cordes, the grotte de Bounias, the grotte de la source, the dolmen de Coutignargues and the grotte du Castelets. They are variously referred to as grottes, hypogees or dolmens in the various literature I can find (which isn’t much).

However, in what literature I can find, this seems to be a very important group of monuments which has been largely forgotten.

Glyn Daniel calls them ‘among the largest and most impressive chamber tombs in France’ which have yielded grave goods of ‘a rich a very important character’.

Access: On the same road as Dolmen de Coste-Rouge, just a little further east. From the priory where Coste-Rouge is, travel less than 1km east. When the road forks, take the right onto a dirt road. There is another junction almost immediately – this time go left.

In just under 100 metres you should see a little sign on the left pointing into the trees along a reasonably well-worn path. The dolmen is less than 100 metres into the trees, right on the path.

Visited Wednesday 5 September
Another beauty. Nice dolmen of pretty large slabs in the low remnants of its rubble cairn. At first glance, it seems to have two capstones, one of which has slipped off the back. But once you think about it, it’s obviously actually one huge stone broken in two.

The front part still covers the whole chamber – the back part has fallen when it was broken because it’s basically a huge overhang. In Dolmens et Menhirs en Lanuedoc et Rousillon, Bruno Marc says that in one piece, it was the largest capstone in the area – just over 4 metres long! There is also a fairly large slab on edge right next to the dolmen on the mound. Monsieur Marc says this could be part of a kist – possibly.

No real views of surrounding terrain, not least because of the forestry that covers the hillsides here. The trees on the steep hillside to the north(ish) looked very pretty in the sun and gave dramatic backdrop though....

If it stood up straight and tucked its shirt in it might be 7ft tall, but its got a severe lean. (like that stone near Carsington water). I thought once that it might fall over one day, but after seeing the equinox sun rise over Moelfre uchaf and noting that the stone leans towards it I wonder if it might be intentional. The centre stone at Boscawen un also purposely leans so it wouldn’t be a first.

Burl calls this a playing card shape but I don’t see it myself, it looks like a half buried stone axe to me. Thin on one side and really broad on the other it’s a very striking stone . Visible from the path/lane to the Poets stone with the peak of Tal y Fan behind it.

Access: Signposted from the nearest village – Le Pouget. As long as you don’t mind driving carefully on a dirt road that gets a little rough at times, the walk is less than 100 metres across the corner of a field and along a good path. Otherwise a walk of around 1km, probably a little more, from Le Pouget.

We went here on the way to the Dolmen de Coste-Rouge. It’s easily accessible from junction 57 on the A75 motorway, or (as we did) from the N109 from Montpellier. From the N109, take the D32 at Gignac – south towards Canet. It’s just under 7km, after passing a village called Pouzols you need to keep an eye out for a small left (east) to Le Pouget.

If you miss it, you’ll come to a smallish roundabout, which you can go to Le Pouget from, but it’ll take you all round the town (we know – we did it!) If you’re coming from the A75 motorway, go through Canet, and when you reach the little roundabout head for Gignac for a very short distance and find the turning east (right).

So, from the little turning to Le Pouget, head east just into the village, but as soon as you reach it, keep an eye out for dolmen signs and a tiny very narrow and tight right turn uphill squeezed between buildings. Go up this road which climbs and passes out of the village. As you reach the last few buildings look out for a (I think) handmade sign for the dolmen down a dirt road on your right.

Take the dirt road. There are a few spots where you’ll need to drive very carefully, but we managed in a family car. Wouldn’t fancy it in a low-slung sporty-job though!!! Go right to the end of the road and park.

At the end of the road you’ll find a large stone on each side (the left one is very menhirlike and has ‘dolmen’ written on it). In front of you is a field with a tree under which is a little stone bench. To the right of this is a path out of the field, and the dolmen in its mound is only about 25 metres along this and you can’t miss it....

Visited Wednesday 5 September
Nice passage! We arrived at the site to find, to our surprise, a group of four French pensioners having a coffeebreak from a hike. They kindly moved off the monument so that we could have a good poke about and take pictures.

The passage grave sits in a largeish mound and has been nicely restored. The passage and chamber are around 12 metres long, dry-stone walled, except for the chamber’s entrance stone, back slab and the capstones. The entrance stone to the chamber has a beautiful ‘kennel-hole’ (or catflap as we tend to call them...) and the exposed passage is elegantly long and narrow.

Interestingly, the dry-stone walling of the chamber is kind of corbelled, narrowing at the top. It was fascinating to see later in the trip, that this seems to be an echo of the hypogées in the Arles-Fontvieille Group, such as the Grotte de la Source – especially as the Arles-Fontvieille Group is thought to be so compact because the builders ‘moved on’ rather than spreading.

According to the guide at the Dolmen de Coste-Rouge, the entrance hole was “created by the archaeologists”. I’m not sure how she knows this though, as she admitted that most of her info on ‘her’ dolmen comes from Bruno Marc’s Dolmens et Menhirs en Languedoc et Roussilion. He says de Gallard is restored, but is not so specific – I suspect she was just trying to ‘big-up’ Coste-Rouge as the only ‘genuine’ kennel-hole.... (We were later to discover another, even more catflapish one in the Oise valley, way oop north!)

Great views of the surrounding area, particularly over the area to the north, but we didn’t get a chance to see how visible the tomb is from below. A lovely spot where we stayed for long enough for Jane to sketch. The “sweet biddies” were still there when we left – so they obviously liked it!

There’s a steep side and a gentle sloping side, like a twerp I went up the longway . The defences on the western side are the best preserved, with no really obvious entrances, but another great view. Situated amongst a maze of small lanes halfway between Snowdonia and the Clwydian range .( all of which Iv’e been to ).
The hillfort could be part of an Equinox alignment along with Moelfre Uchaf and Cerrig Pryffaid stone circle, though with a thousand years inbetween the construction of the two sites it seems probable that its fortuitous.

It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry when you’re faced with it! We’d seen a picture of it printed on the label of a bottle of beer the night before and been mightily amused. The reality of it is that it’s quite small – about 5’3”. Though how much the silly christians removed from its original size to fashion it into this bizarre cross is impossible to tell.

We set out early to find the allee couverte du Bois-Couturier near Guiry-en-Vexin. They have maps to show you how to find it at the prehistory museum in Guiry. You have to walk about 20 minutes through a forest, on reasonably good clearly marked paths, to find it. But when you have you’ll love it!

It was rediscovered in 1915 and excavated until 1919: 200 skeletons found as well as polished stone axes, tools and ceramic shards. It’s 8 ms long and 2 ms wide – I thought the proportions seemed quite odd compared with many allee couvertes we’d seen. Essentially it’s a sunken box entirely lined with drystone walling and covered with 4 capstones.

The most astonishing thing about it is the round and lovely porthole in the portal stone – quite perfect! I crawled through it and into the tomb. I sat inside to consider that that the round blocking stone ‘door’ was discovered during excavation, and in superb condition. It now lives in the nearby prehistory museum. It looks like a great saucepan lid, complete with handle.

This is a ‘Hollywood’ site by any standards.

La Pierre Turquaise is a big league A-list ‘Hollywood’ megalithic site! Nestled into mature oak forest, and with acorns raining down all around us, we sat drinking tea from our flasks and smoking a small cigar to help us relax and admire this lovely place. In 1842 it was nearly broken up to help pave Paris, would you believe and in 1985 it suffered a horrific explosive attack which badly damaged it. One of the stones was sheared off and the top piece lies near the allee couverte.

It’s 10.6 ms long and nearly 2 ms wide and despite the 1985 attack still has 2 mighty capstones. Its calm woodland setting reminded us of some of the hunebedden in NL. Hard hats required though, to protect yourself from all those falling acorns. That, or bring a piglet!

Just a few fields away from La Pierre Plate is the allee couverte de Blanc Val, which has lost all its capstones and now lies in a scrubby patch of thyme and weeds at the edge of a field near Presles.

Blanc Val has a complete set of internal orthostats lining what is essentially a stone box. At one end, the bottom half of the portal stone is still visible, with the semicircle of what was once a porthole entrance. Blanc Val is not a thrilling monument to see, but the fact that it’s still here and that traces of cement on it shows that someone recently gave a toss about it is good enough for me.

You can drive quite close on a dirt track on the edge of the woodland and take a path in. It’s quite near a ‘Poney-Club’. I don’t remember a signpost but this grid ref is correct.

It lies in the thick woodland of the Foret Domenial L’Isle Adam, and is a sunken length of megalithic drystone walling between orthostats, still bearing the weight of four capstones. At the portal end, a carved stone has a kennel hole in it which presumably once had a blocking stone. All round the allee couverte, which is fenced for protection, wild strawberry plants formed a carpet underfoot. A very nice monument.

The remains of this probable five stone circle (O’Nuallain PRIA 84C, 1984; 44) are situated at the eastern end of a marshy field which slopes down gently north to a noisy and intensely overgrown stream. The ground rises towards Carrigfadda to the southwest but a view to the horizon in this direction is obscured by a line of trees near the southern field boundary.

Two hip-height stones; the axial and its northern flanker are all that is left to immediate sight. O’Nuallain noticed a quartz boulder 1.7m and a stone 90cm at their maximum placed against the fence a few yards to the east. I could only find the quartz stone, and then only by its brilliance speckling through the earth and growth now covering it. I dusted it off somewhat for the photograph and then covered it up again.

The axial stone leans outwards considerably to the west but looks as if it originally presented a level, flat top, pitted in the centre. The flanker leans inwards to the south giving it a rather bulbous look, tapering to the bottom. Its shading and shape are very striking to the eye.

O’Nuallain grants the possibility that the two stones at the fence originally formed part of the monument and it certainly would not be unusual for the coincidence of a sizeable quartz block with a stone circle in this area. Its dimensions are apparently in excess of the wonderful conglomerate in Lettergorman and I would have loved to have seen more than the foot-size patch I scratched open.

The site can be approached with courage or recklessness through the marsh, brambles, water traps, sheer drops and wire fences from the road to the east but may be better attempted from the Carrigfadda side.

Access: In grounds of St Michel de Grandmont Priory (Prieurié de St Michel-de-Grandmont). Smallish entrance charge for priory and dolmen together and only visitable with guide on a ten minute walk on undulating gravelly paths.

Afterwards we realised that the guided tour allegedly also takes in a menhir (with interesting-sounding ruts and creases in the rock nearby) and 2 other (more battered) dolmens – the dolmens de Belvédère – but we weren’t offered the option....

Take the A75 motorway to Lodève. We left it at junction 53 travelling north, then skirted the town on the D25, following signs to the priory onto the little D135 to the east. This is steep and winding to begin with as it climbs into the hills. Once onto the top of the hills, the priory is only a few km and still signposted. After our visit, we discovered that it’s possible to spot the dolmen from one of the bends before you reach the priory.

Visited Wednesday 5 September
A stunner! We arrived at the priory at around 1pm and were told that the next planned tour to the dolmen was at 3pm, but that as it was quiet, the guide would take us and another couple in about 10 minutes.

This was lucky as we didn’t want to hang about, but possibly the reason we weren’t shown the other dolmens and the menhir. I was too excited to remember they were even there, so we didn’t think to ask about them. Gah.

The dolmen was as thrilling as it looks. An impressive monument with a pretty unusual and well-preserved ‘kennel-hole’ entrance, a huge cuplike/ballaunlike depression on one side and a small carved ‘christianising’ cross on the other. The dolmen stands in low remnants of its rubble mound, on a ridge running out from the hillside. Beautiful views of surrounding hills and valleys, partially obscured by trees.

The capstone is around 3.15 x 3 metres and rubbing against it was apparently a bizarre cure for skin diseases in the middle ages (according to Bruno Marc in Dolmens et Menhirs en Languedoc et Roussilion – if my French translation is good enough!)

Wonderful!

This round barrow is on the Purbeck golf course (hole number 7) but is on a public bridleway which also leads to the Agglestone and the Puckstone. It is a medium sized bell type with a flat top in reasonable condition.

Owned by Lord Anglesey... so that’s why we were made to feel so unwelcome by some bloke with shotgun. Admittedly he didn’t say or do anything, but I was glad to get back in the car.

On a dull day last August (06) we’d driven back down the lane from Bryn Celli Ddu & straight across the A4080. Turn 1st left through a gateway (well it didn’t say ‘Private Road’) and I parked at the junction some 500 yards further on. On foot straight ahead on the clear path through the gate for about half a mile on the edge of some woods, and you can see the very large chambered cairn/barrow in the field on your right.

There are trees on top of the barrow, and it looks very forlorn, but its size alone (as big as West Kennett) suggests former glory. One broken down entrance still exists half way along the bottom side but no way in.

On our return to the car we were watched from the safety of his garden by the shotgun bloke. I would like to go back in drier weather to get a better look at the site, but need to persuade June & Sam they weren’t gonna get shot!

This is not a double bank as I put in my miscellaneous entry, but a large single rampart with a deep ditch on its east side. The rampart is about twenty feet in height and at its deepest the ditch is ten feet deep. It is about 250 yards long and is to the west of a complex of cross dykes and ancient sunken trackways. To the northeast Rawlesbury castle can be seen and views across the landscape must stretch to many tens of miles.
I wanted to visit the Dorsetshire gap which is just below to the east, but chickened out when I saw the field leading to it was full of young steers. This will have to wait for another day.

There is no sign of the cursus at this point, despite the markings on O.S. maps. I agree with treehouse that the long barrow here looks like one continuous barrow with a gap in it. It appears very much like Long Bredy bank barrow, the gap being at a similar place, i.e about a third of the length from the northern end, where the trees end.It cannot be much shorter in length. What the difference between a long barrow and a bank barrow I have yet to see satisfactorily explained.

Another visit to this varied site which is still the border between Hampshire and Dorset. This time I was interested in the southern end around Blagdon hill and the junction with Grim’s ditch. At this point there are two pairs of round barrows either side of the dyke.
It is here that Bokerley is at its most impressive, the bank and ditch are at their highest and deepest at this place. This would be a major civil engineering feat now and must have taken huge effort in pre-history. In length it is the equivalent of several large hillforts. It enabled the romanised tribe of Dorset to remain largely untouched by the post roman saxon invaders until about 700 c.e.

This is an interesting site as it’s at a junction of Bokerley dyke and Grim’s ditch. The barrows are on a show jumping ring and are in very nice condition, one is large and the other is a tiny round barrow, right next to the ditch.
At this point Grim’s ditch runs into Dorset from Hampshire, going straight through Bokerley dyke.

This is a really nice pear shaped long barrow. It is to the south of the eastern terminal of the great Dorset Cursus. It is to the west of Bokerley dyke and is oriented north/south.

These round barrows are to the east of Bokerley dyke, three are in a group next to part of Grim’s ditch. The three graduate in size with the largest south and the smallest north. I saw another single bowl barrow at the northern edge of the down, there are more on the map, but I didn’t see them this time.

This is a site that would bear further investigation. The top of Barretstown Hill is surrounded by a ditch and bank close on a kilometre in circumference. The bank and ditch are overgrown with hawthorn trees.
An archaeological survey of Co. Kildare mentions four round barrows here but it’s hard to make them out. Are they inside the enclosure? Would that be likely, presuming that the enclosure was a habitation site? They’re marked on the map as being at the south end of the top of the hill and this puts them inside. However, there are a great many earthworks to the north of the hill, scooped out quarries with small, barrow-like mounds that may be of a more modern vintage.
Barretstown Hill is the highest point for miles around and would have been easily defended. So where are the barrows?

What seems to be a very common type of standing stone around here, it’s about one and a half metres tall, very square from its base to almost its top where it seems to have been broken.

There are 6 barrows marked on the map just west of Killucan. They range across 4 townlands: Sarsfieldstown, Rathwire Upper, Lisnabin and Rathnarrow. The large one depicted here is just over the fence beside the R156 in Sarsfieldstown. It’s the biggest barrow I’ve ever seen, flat-topped, about 45 metres long, 10 metres across and rises to about 2 metres. Erosion from cattle grazing has exposed some of the mound. From its top you can clearly see the much smaller barrow in Rathwire Upper about 400 metres to the north-north-east.
The other four barrows are not visible from here, 3 on a spur between 2 hillocks in Lisnabin and Newdown at Rathnarrow and 1 on the peak of Lisnabin itself.

I’d heard of the recent fire attack at the stones, so decided to pop up and take a look at the damage for myself.

I’d arrived early, so as to avoid the tourists, and had the circle to myself for all of 5 minutes. I nearly cried when I saw the aftermath of the damage, both in the circle and to the King Stone sign.

At least 4 inches of wood ash surrounded the base of the stone at the right of the entrance to the circle, and the entire top was blackened, presumably where the tyre was hung and filled with wood. Looking at the ashes, it was plain that the wood used had been brought deliberately for the attack, rather than just using saplings etc from the adjoining brush, as the wood that hadn’t been fully burnt was worked, like short strips of 10mmx2mm. This wasn’t a spur of the moment thing, but had obviously been carefully planned.

Across the way, the cast iron sign by the King Stone had also been attacked, looking like it had been set to with a gemmy bar, as the iron was split and buckled.

Luckily, it looks as if the Whispering Knights were left alone.

I’ve tried to understand the mindset of people who would do such a pointless thing. I’ve failed. Maybe it was because there was only £7 in the collection box that they also raided?

Apparently the police aren’t particularly interested in following this one through, presumably because there’s so little to go on. Which means the perps may be encouraged to come back and have another go? I sincerely hope not. Very sad.