Latest Fieldnotes

Access: A fair walk, I reached the monument(s) from Erdeven (Les Alignements de Kerzerho via the Menhirs de Kerjean.

From Erdeven, the walk to Mané Braz was probably around 30-40 minutes, though it has to be said that the rain lent me speed!

Could also be reached in the opposite direction through the woods from Mané Groh, via Coët-er-Bei (and La Chaise de César).

The walk through the woods is all on good but circuitous tracks (not too muddy even in the filthy weather I had!). Mostly pretty flat with only a few pretty gentle gradients.

All along, I was very grateful that the paths were signposted, as it was so wet that I don’t think the rain would have done a map or a book any good at all. And truth be told, the only maps I had would probably have proved sadly inadequate.

Just before I reached Mané Braz, the path started to climb a bit, and the land began to rise above me on my left. Probably at around this point, Julian seems to describe the dolmens as being visible from the path, but I wasn’t in the mood for stopping and studying the lie of the land any more than necessary, trusting completely to the signs.

(I think there’s probably also a shortcut at some point here but I didn’t think it was worth trying, especially with limited time and the sopping undergrowth.)

Visited Sunday 17 April 2005
Really beautiful on a thinly tree-grown, glade-like mound, there are 4 monuments in one here, all originally having apparently been covered by a single oval mound or tumulus.

The first 2 that I approached (from the SE) were a classic Brittany passage grave with transepts, and a ‘simpler’ passage grave. There is also a heavily denuded semi-subterranean one and, finally, the stripped remnants of another (that can hardly even be termed megalithic in its current state!)

If only the sun had been out, what a place for a relaxing picnic, a chill and a chat!!! And the walk would be lovely in the sun! I’ve since learnt that there seems to be another very ruined dolmen to the SW of the mound, and a fallen menhir to the south.

I spent 15-20 minutes at the dolmens and it wasn’t nearly long enough. It didn’t help that a fair bit of it was spent crouching in the chamber of the largest dolmen, juggling batteries, as I’d forgotten to recharge our SLR and those in our ‘point & shoot’ were now also practically dead.

Although this poor Long Barrow has been almost completely ploughed out, it is well worth visiting because of its spectacular setting. Situated on one of the highest parts in Hampshire (234M.), the views encompass nearly the whole of the county and the N. of the I.O.W.
Deep combes to the E. and Butser Hill,Old Winchester Hill to the W, Southampton Fawley and the Solent to the SW and the N. Hampshire Downs and Beacon Hill to the N.

It is shocking that this ancient relic has no protection. So far as I could see, ploughing may well be going on (The site was under grass silage), and within a lifetime could destroy all traces of the barrow.
Why not impose a small exclusion zone as has been done elsewhere?
(MAGIC says it survives well. Hmmm!)

In all my pictures the barrow is the vague hump in the extreme foreground!

Access
Rough but adequate track to the W. of the disused MOD site leads to radio masts and parking by the barn. Short walk on level but rutted foot path (South Downs Way) and the barrow is just, barely, visible in the second field on the left.

Access: From the Alignements de Kerzerho and Les Géants on the same good paths and forestry lanes. Could also be reached in the opposite direction through the woods from Mane Groh, via Coet-er-Bei (and La Chaise de César).

Following the signs through the woods towards Mane Braz dolmens it was only 5 or 10 minutes before I could see the Kerjean Menhirs peeking through the trees to the right of the path.

Visited Sunday 17 April 2005
These might be more difficult to spot with growth on the trees in the summer, but shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

There are a fair number of stones left here, mostly smaller than the remaining Kerzerho alignments and far smaller than Les Géants. But still well worth seeing in their disarray, and helping to get a feel of what this area must’ve been like when the alignments stretched for kilometres through the now wooded area.

Just around one of the next corners, there are a few stones visible to the left of the path in the woods (probably quite a few if you’re up to having a thrash about in the undergrowth). For all the paths through these woods it’s well worth scanning the woods on both sides, as there are many small ‘patches’ of remnants from the originally wide-ranging alignments hereabouts.

Access: Car park next to the stones at Erdeven. Good even grassy paths between the stones. Travel to Erdeven on the D781. Just to the SE of the village, there is a carpark on the NE side of the road.

Visited Sunday 17 April 2005
I first saw these stones in about 1998 on the way to Carnac and was wiped out!

I guess they’re less impressive than the various other Carnac alignments in terms of numbers and extent, but they’re accessible at all times, beautiful and still damned impressive.

Les Géants de Kerzerho: Les Géants are a walk of a few hundred metres at most on flat, pretty even ground. The path is grassed through the main Kerzerho stones and then a pretty good grass/dirt path (not too muddy when we were there).

The (signposted) path to Les Géants de Kerzerho sets off from very near the car park, on the left as you walk along the main rows.

Visited Sunday 17 April 2005
After a false start missing the path, a short distance down the path, there they were. And very wonderful they are too.

As they’re now quite isolated a short distance from the remaining main part of the Kerzerho alignments, it’s kind of difficult to get a ‘handle’ on just why these extra large stones are bunched together like this. Possibly if the intervening stones were still there or if there wasn’t vegetation inbetween, it’d make more sense.

Unfortunately, I forgot about the holed stone Julian mentions, as I was unwilling to get TME out of my rucksack in the heavy rain.

The alignments here must have been absolutely magnificent once, as they’re still fantastically impressive in their ruin. What it must’ve been to see them and the other small patches of alignments still evident right across the woods when they were all continuous!

I have visited Crucuny a number of times over the years. It is an impressive mound and I used to like catching out of the corner of my eye from the road to Carnac.
It is pot-luck as to whether you find it covered in six foot high vegetation or shaved clean by the council’s rather aggressive looking lawnmower.
I will, at some point, work out how many of these Grand Tumuli were intervisible in a landscape with less trees...

Approximate long/lat coordinates, as I couldn’t see the site on the (inline) aerial photomap.

Access: The easiest way to reach this site is in the opposite direction to the one I took, by setting off from Mané Groh.

I reached the monument(s) from Erdeven (Les Alignements de Kerzerho via the Menhirs de Kerjean and Mané Braz. The walk was a fair one – probably around an hour, not counting looking time at the monuments on the way! (Luckily I got picked up by Jane in the car at the other end....)

From Mané Braz, I rejoined the main path and continued on away from Erdeven, following signs to Mané Groh. As it happened, we’d been there earlier but I’d forgotten its name!

After around 15 minutes I suddenly saw a sign to my left for a ‘new’ monument. I’d completely forgotten about La Chaise de César and Coët er Bei (not daring to get The Megalithic European (TME) out in the constant downpour) but here they were! And even better, I could just see the stones through the trees.

I walked quickly along the path to reach the nearest stones, and quickly realised I’d been here before. On a previous trip in the late 90s, on leaving the Dolmen de Crucuno I’d rushed trying to find another dolmen (which I now discovered was Mané Groh). On that occasion I’d missed the dolmen but I had happened across some stones. Until now I’d never known what they were....

Visited Sunday 17 April 2005
There were a lot more stones here than I’d seen (in a hurry) on that occasion. Approaching from the path, La Chaise de César itself doesn’t stand out quite as one might expect, as there are a few other stones around the same size here. It’s impressive though, and unmistakeable – it is indeed, very chairlike!

Interestingly, in TME Julian calls the La Chaise a “gorsedd”. This seems strange to me, as a gorsedd in the sense he usually uses it is a natural rock formation (or so I always thought) whereas this is clearly an artificially erected stone.

The stones are very scattered but impressive, and many are difficult to ‘see’ as rows. It’s indisputable, but very difficult to imagine that they were once part of same alignments as Kerzerho, Kerjean and the various other groups I’d walked past. Especially as I’d walked, so knew just how far they once stretched!

To reach Mané Groh from here, simply return to the main forestry road a few hundred yards until you reach the tarmaced ‘real’ road (from Crucuno). Turn left and Mané Groh is a very short distance on the verge to the left.

At last I have managed to visit this small round Somerset hillfort. Access is very easy via foot paths from Dunster but it is six hundred feet up and is a pretty stiff climb, the views from the fort are well worth the effort.
It has low ramparts made up of small pieces of local stone piled up into banks. I doubt it is as high as it used to be as it appears to be very disturbed in places. No doubt it has been used as a quarry by local people. For most of the circumference there are two banks and a ditch. The interior covers three and a half acres and evidence of occupation has been found.

When the Saxon/Norman church was demolished in 1876, it was found that the old tower had been built on a circle of 12 Sarsen stones. They were described as “A Druidical Temple” at the time and the builders blamed the difficulty of working around them as one of the reasons for the cost/time overrun of the new church. This was designed by the famous Victorian architect Sir Alfred Waterhouse (Nat Hist Mus, Manchester Town Hall etc.) and he put the new tower on the site of the old and used the old circle again for the foundations. Nothing to see above ground sadly but another nice example of one religion imposing itself on another.

(Two prone Sarsens by footbridge over the River Itchen and fine ancient clipped Yew to the north)

As Jane has said, easily to find just off the main road to Cala en Porter, this site has ample free parking, but a small entrance fee is payable and a guide leaflet is available at the hut.

A pair of unloved and unsignposted talaiots only yards from the roundabout at the exit from the airport road. Directly under the flight path of everything, I’d guess!

The grid reference is for the better preserved of the two; its more ruinous neighbour is about 50 metres east of here.

Directions: when you come out of the airport, take a right at the roundabout onto the M12 and after about 300 metres, take the narrow left turn just past the first buildings. The road winds round and at the T head, go right. The talaiots are in the field just past the last buildings on the right.

Off the main road from Porto Christo to Porto Colom, just past a zoo, there’s a left turn to Cales de Mallorca – also with the pink sign to Hospitalet Vell. The first site that was clearly marked on our (AA) map as “ruinas prehistoricas”!

Only about 1km down the road, you can see what appears to be a huge wall to the right a way off the road, and soon after there’s another sign and a layby in front of a gate where we parked up and walked up the track to the poblat.

Before you actually get to the wall you’ve seen, a signpost directs you to the left to the foundations of 3 naviforms with a small wood still separating you from the major part of the site.

Back round the wood and the sheer scale of what appeared to be a wall reveals itself as a rectangular monument with the huge blocks of stone typical of the building style of the era. The interior of this monument had inner walls added later.

Exploring round the back, a path leads to the left to a square talaiot with a series of rooms around it and wooden steps to allow visitors to admire the central support pillar of the talaiot and the only known remaining spars which formed the ceiling and second floor – the last century hasn’t been kind to the momuments on the island and many have been left to go to ruin, if not ruined intentionally.

Beyond the talaiot and surrounding rooms, there’s a heavily overgrown area with more ruins extending into the woods.

Limited parking, open access & no entrance fee.

This site is on the road out of Porto Colom towards S’Horta – the road narrows as it leaves the urban area and the roadside stones – a naviform – are clearly visible on the right hand side.

Almost all the site is in the process of being excavated, but at a very slow rate (20 days a year apparently) and almost all was covered with black tarp and spikes, and we could only make out only one naviform in the uncovered area beyond the road and that was becoming overgrown.

Listed as naviform as this is what’s visible but thought to be a settlement of more than 10 buildings.

Signposted off the main road from Capdepera to Son Cervera, just before Canyamel Golf Club, this one is a bit of a mystery.

The pink sign says “Es Claper des Gigant” – nb the first time we tried to visit was a Sunday and the gate was padlocked with no way in – but open the 2nd time so we could park and walked round and came out on the path round a golf course.

Almost immediately, there’s a path off to the left with a wooden sign for “Es Clapers” so we followed the way through a wooded area until we came to a gate and turned right at the T head through it on the basis that my instructions said the talaiot was on high ground.

There were gardeners out on the wide sandy track cutting back the undergrowth, and a few minutes walk later we caught a glimpse of some stone ahead so took a left fork off the main path and after a short climb found ourselves here.

A beautiful talaiot with a path up its side so you can see the entrance, blocked from the outside, and a series of walls and enclosures beyond it .... only checking my notes, I realised it’s the poblat of S’Heretat we were in. But the signpost was quite clear ....

So I’ve listed it as both names and hope someone can identify the location of Es Clapers or confirm that that is the name of the talaiot in the poblat.

Two square talaiots, right next to each other; the first one you come to has a modern wall enclosing it and was very overgrown when we visited – it was all but impossible to see the zigzag entrance runner or the central column, and the second one is so ruinous it’s barely more than a pile of stones in the field boundary.

Directions: From Sencelles take the PM314 south to Cas Canar. After the houses at Cas Canar, just as the road bends sharply to the right, take the turning to the right watch for a pair of gates on the left – one low and rusty, the other over 8ft high with spikes on the top, opposite a sign saying “Sencelles 2,8”, – as you look at the gates the talaiots are in the field to the left.

Some important information about Capocorb Vell:
There’s an entrance fee of 2 euros (2006).
There’s a bar and toilets etc.
There’s ample car parking.
It’s closed on Thursdays!

What day did we visit? Yes, you’ve guessed it, a Thursday, and our last day of holiday too so no chance to try again.

The perimeter walls were sufficient enough, together with the cacti, to discourage hopping over – a huge site with 5 talaiots and numerous rooms to explore ..... next time!

From Santanyi, we took the C714 north towards Cas Concos des Cavalier, but after only about 1km took the first right turn. This narrow road bends after maybe ½km, and glancing into the field to the left, I spotted a magnificent section of wall and following the bend round, the talaiot of Ca’n Jordi set back from the road.

This talaiot has a magnificent, if precariously balanced, central pillar and an unusual zigzag entrance runner.

There appeared to be the remains of some walls or rooms adjacant to the talaiot, but an alarmed, and equally alarming when it popped out of the undergrowth, chicken with chicks was in residence, so we didn’t investigate too closely, but went into the next field where the wall continues.

Sadly, the talaiot and the sections of wall are all that remains of the poblat Ses Talaies de ca’n Jordi.

From the southern town of Felanitx we took the PM512 towards Campos del Port but after about 1km turned off to the right onto the Cami de Son Mesquida. After about 4km, and just before Son Mesquida itself, we took a left onto Cami de Pedreres and almost immediately left again following the signpost to Can Roig.

Before long, there was a right turn with a sign saying “Formatges” which we followed, past a building with huge lettering “Santa Son Mesquida” on it. There’s a house numbered 2098 to the right, and after this we kept to the left down a farm track – with a substantially sized ostrich in the field to the left – and pulled up in the farmyard.

We asked permission, and the farmer, with a beaming grin, escorted us past the cowsheds to the naviform.

The naviform is the remaining one of three; it was the middle one, and the wall to its right contains some of the stones from its neighbour. The inside is impressive, with the walls way taller than us; the interior dividing walls are thought to be later, maybe Roman, additions, and the construction of the apse has lead archaeologists to believe there was originally an attic space.

This is a fantastic example of a Burren type wedge tomb, it also has quite easy access from the nearby road.

You cross a number of small ruinous field walls but the last of these is in fact the remainder of a ring fort according to the small booklet ‘A Burren Journey’, available locally.

To the south east of the tomb, just a few yards, is what looks like a small cairn about the same size as those found at Beaghmore, to the south west, adjoining the ruined ring walls, is a circular room or hut foundation with a hearth.

The tomb itself is quite roomy with rubble scattered on the floor, there is some kind of entrance arrangement with some large stones which once formed a facade with a possible entrance fromt he side of the court, alá West Kennet Longbarrow in its present state.

Got some beautiful flashes of glorious sunshine through the heavy clouds here today but the strong winds blew over my tripod with two flash units on, breaking both :(

A magnificent stone, hidden and neglected in the wall of a large field. The two conjoined bullauns are some of the deepest I’ve seen. Full of water and leaf mulch, I was only able to test their depth by using a stick of about a foot long. This sunk all the way ‘til it disappeared. The Arch. Inventory of Co. Carlow describes the bullauns as ‘conical’, putting one in mind of the nearby stone in Myshall graveyard.

This amazing Dolmen is from around 3300 BC and is the largest round barrow in Denmark. The circle is made up of 235 ton stones. There used to be 24 but one was cut up by a stone cutter in the 1890s. The capstone is 21 tons. The spring equinox sun shines through the entrance.

Coming from Unstan and the Brig o’Waithe, not taking the short road over to Stromness but taking the long sweep round it is easy to see this stone on the brow of the hill above the near corner of the quarry-turned-dump. Easiest to go over the gate in the roadside field before this quarry and then over the gate into the containing field. Because the rain was persisting down and the fields full of corn I opted instead to go around the quarry and through a barb-wire fence. But the thistles meant my trews were dampened anyway! At the base of the extant stone a few broken stones are from the socket I would imagine (in the quarry roadside I espied a large stone that may be part of that destroyed other). Trevor Garnham has the broad face the same direction to Unstan as the Setter Stone is to Braeside, which would have been at 45 degrees to the reported NW/SE alignment of the stone [it is at the same longtitude]. The latter appears to indicate the Dyke of Sean or maybe the Wasbister disc barrow.

In The Megalithic European, Julian pays little more than a double page spread of lip-service to the long, glorious island of Langeland off the southern coast of Fyn in Denmark, almost certainly due to lack of space in the book and time in the field.

The thing that doesn’t come over in Julian’s commentary is the sheer variety, intensity and close proximity of monument after monument in this small finger of land. It took us two days to do it justice.

The bridges to get there are mercifully toll-free and the rolling countryside on the island is more enchanting even than the rest of Denmark. Langeland is home to scores of bird species and hares and deer abound. The main town on the island is Rudkøbing which felt very strongly like a far less bleak Kirkwall.

It was Moth’s birthday and while we were waiting for our friends to join us for some lunch, we quickly zipped out to see Bjerrebygaard dolmen.

We arrived in blazing sunshine and galloped over the muddy field to reach the stunning monument, cluster of large stones, dolmens with giant capstones and six monster, gnarled ‘pantomime’ oak trees sticking out of a large mound. Very dramatic.

We spent some time enjoying it until the sky in the northwest darkened suddenly and a wall of weather closed in. We made it back to the car just in time as a full-on blizzard of hailstones pelted down.

Its pretty remote up here on the beautiful Djursland peninsula, just north west of Århus, but quite gorgeous. It’s the most beautiful part of Denmark I had yet seen. I wanted to see Poskær Stenhus – surely the most picturesque place in TME!

As we arrived the sun came out unbroken and I scampered about the monument like a happy bunny. Moth climbed the Tinghulen to get some height some photos and I, after speaking to a woman tending her horses (who, with the horse she currently tended had once lived in Lambourn) sat and found the view where the light was just right for me to paint.

Poskær Stenhus is essentially the skeleton of a monument exactly like Groenhøj – gorgeous pink kerbstones, bit of a passage, nice chamber complete with capstone, bob’s yer uncle. But the setting here is so very fabbie.

Rolling fields and hills, great views, green pasture, heathy bits – oooh! And the nicest thing it’s that somehow its all on a human scale. Nothing here is grand or majestic or mighty. It’s all rather comfortable and nice. I like that.

It should be noted that at Poskær Stenhus visitors will find excellent toilets, so for once, ladies, you don’t need to pee in the open and risk mooning as passers-by.

I even managed to make a sketch here. Happy Jane.

Groenhøj chambered tomb, near Horsens, is a perfect pincushion of a monument, not unlike the Great Cairn on Porth Hellick Down, Scilly, but bigger.

It has a continuous ring of handsome kerbstones and a good high grassy mound. Like so many of the monuments in Denmark, the stones are lovely sparkly pink and grey. It has a very narrow corridor which I probably could have wriggled through to reach the chamber but as it was wet underhoof and I was wearing my only clean pair of jeans so I didn’t bother. At its 1940 excavation, thousands of pottery sherds were unearthed here, the breaking of which was some kind of ritual associated with the use of the mound.

Today, under blue skies with big fluffy clouds and chaffinches darting around in the trees Groenhøj looked very ‘hygge’ (Danish for cosy).