Latest Fieldnotes

The Crucuny cromlech is really rather thrilling.

It’s a wide arc of big stones now forming the boundary between a back garden of a pleasant house and a bucolic lane. I liked this a lot and wondered if the house was for sale.

Crucuny tumulus is another of seven Carnac Grand Tumuli.

It’s got a stone on the top and is horribly overgrown and it’s big and impressive, but it didn’t thrill me as much s the nearby Crucuny cromlech

Le Moustoir tumulus is one of the seven Carnac Grand Tumuli, but if you didn’t know it was there you may well miss it. It’s so big and overgrown that it could easily be mistaken for a natural mound. But this has secrets: secret chambers – one of which you can enter and secret stones including a gorgeous one on the top that Mark hugged enthusiastically. “It feels just like hugging your mum when you were little”, he said.

I tried it. He was right. It had all the right proportions.

This was the perfect place for our picnic. Mark particularly enjoyed the Tunnock’s teacakes I’d packed, as these are not available in France. He also told us of his dreams of Branston pickle, Robinson’s fruit cordials and other British delights. Simple things, eh?

‘Where now, Spaceship Mark?’ I asked. ‘We can walk among stones at the Petit Menec alignments’ he replied.

In thick woodland are the alignments at Petit Menec and I suspect these are not often visited. Today we had this wonderful, short woodland walk to ourselves.

Dotted around among the undergrowth are some pretty cool stones. They’re not as big as the ones at the main alignments at Kermario and Kerlescan. Mark wondered if this was built as an extension slightly later when many of large stones lying around had already been used at Kermario and Kerlescan. Sounded like a practical, sensible reason to me.

From the nearby monuments at Manio, we wandered back through the woods and along the roadside to admire the Kerlescan alignments. Astonishing stuff. You can’t walk among these, but their power is still overwhelming.

I’d never seen a stone rectangle before! It has shortish stones which create a wall effect as they are quite close together. It tapers slightly to one end and there’s a theory that perhaps it once enclosed a mound, but it somehow didn’t feel right for that. It felt more like a meeting place to me.

Just a two minute drive away from Kercado, the Géant de Manio menhir and Manio rectangle lurk in the woods. (I kept thinking of the fruity voice of Jack DeManio who, I think, was a BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme presenter. Whatever happened to him?)

The Géant de Manio is a monster menhir and obviously has very close connections to the Manio rectangle, being only 15 metres apart.

Kercado tumulus is the oldest monument here, dated at 5,000 ‘avant J.C’. Seven thousand years old. It was very cool. It’s privately owned so visitors have to pay but there was no one in the booth so we just walked right in. Situated at the highest point around, now surrounded by mature woodland full of big pink jays flying around above our heads, this small mound is like nothing I’ve seen before. It’s a mound, (like the one at Arbor Low) with a menhir on top, a stone circle embracing it and a very nice passage and large chamber inside.

We spent some time inside considering the eight great wall slabs and giant capstone with is supported not by the wall slabs, but by corbelling built above the wall slabs. This gives the impression of the capstone floating. Amazing. I loved it here. I’d like to have spent longer but Mark had another seventeen sites to show us yet…

Julian mentions the similarity this stone has to a cetacean’s head in his book and he’s absolutely right. Weathering has given it a long groove down one side that smiles at you like a dolphin asking for a herring.

From here, Mark pointed out the alignment of these monuments directly between tumulus St Michel in the west and Kercado tumulus to the west.

Breton expert Mark had accompanied Julian on his fact-finding mission for his book ‘The Megalithic European’ (TME) two years before and from what I could gather Mark had not visited many of the sites we would see today since then. Our first stop was just a 300metre walk away Kerluir dolmen and menhir.

In TME Julian recounts the story of his and Mark’s visit to this place and the gorse-diving necessary to reach it. As we approached we saw that a convenient path had been cut through the ‘ajonc’ to reach it. This disappointed Mark as I think he liked the difficulty/reward thing but pleased me as I am rather susceptible to gorse splinters. Today the gorse was in full bloom and it was like walking through a golden forest which was alive with green- and goldfinches. The dolmen is sweet and small and amazingly the capstone is held up by only two uprights. Exit the gorse and walk 15metres to up close and personal with the porpoise-like Kerluir menhir.

We met the young and lovely Spaceship Mark in bright sunshine at the main car park by the Kermario alignments. His pockets were bulging with detailed maps and a much-loved copy of Burl’s ‘Megalithic Brittany’. Mark was living and working in a campsite literally just opposite the alignments. Now that would be a great place to have your hols!

The alignments are particularly complete here and consist of some really big, tall stones. We stopped to admire them and to see the Lann Mané dolmen which lies just next to them close to the road.

The alignments are not open for visitors to walk amongst during the summer months so we couldn’t actually get in. This didn’t spoil my enjoyment at all; a clear view unsullied by visitors was good enough for me.

It is IMPOSSIBLE not to be overwhelmed by the sheer scale and obsession of menhir erection here. It’s truly astonishing!

A pleasant surprise to find this tomb while having a look around the gardens. Manicured yes, but equally in no danger of being ploughed up, or having rubbish dumped in it, so I’ll take what I can get.

It’s not worth paying the entrance fee to see it, and in some respects nor are the gardens given what NTS charge. I’d always advise joining, because no matter what your views on the organisation, you get ‘free’ entry to all the properties, throughout the UK. Nice places for picnics on the way home, and for finding hidden gems like this one.

This is a little mysterious. At the front of the relevant section of TME, there’s a picture of the talaiot of Sa Canova, in ruins.

In fact there are two talaiots in this area, one of which is a ruinous square one called Canova d’en Morell (pictured in TME) but the guide leaflet to Ses Paisses shows a magnificent talaiot of Sa Canova .... a round one.

This is actually known as Sa Clova des Xot, and is hopefully the one indicated on the map. According to the guy at Ses Paisses, it’s on private land, but is visible from the road to Sant Pere if you know where to look.

A definate A list site this one. A very convenient carpark is sited right next to the beach. We parked amongst the other motorhomes and I left the rest of the family making sandcastles, a short walk down the path next to the beach takes you directly to the Allee Coudee. When I got there I found a guide waiting for any one who visits he had a torch so I let him tag along, he didn’t speak much English and my French ain’t great, all I could get out of him was whilst lighting the rock art and pointing was “Goddess” and similar one word explanations. His name was (and still is I presume) Christophe. After a couple of minutes I managed to explain my name is Christopher too, but not that I thought he had a really cool job.

The passage bends to the left half way down
which is what differentiates an Allee Couverte from an Allee Coudee. It has carvings on nearly half the stones (hence the guide/guardian) and with a tall cupmarked menhir at the entrance, this is a real gem of aplace

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!