Images (6)
Fieldnotes (2)

Images

Image of Grand Dolmen de Ferrussac (Passage Grave) by Moth

Wednesday 5 September 2007 The ‘double-dolmen’ appearance and the elderly couple who helped us realise we’d missed the Petit Dolmen de Ferrusac

Image credit: Tim Clark

Moth Sep 21, 2007

Wednesday 5 September 2007

Image credit: Tim Clark

Moth Sep 21, 2007

Wednesday 5 September 2007 Approaching from the road

Image credit: Tim Clark

Moth Sep 21, 2007

Wednesday 5 September 2007 The uppermost part of the chamber, looking like a large but ‘standard-type’ dolmen (and hiding the sins of the other, concrete, side slab)

Image credit: Tim Clark

Moth Sep 21, 2007

Wednesday 5 September 2007 Note the light shining through the upper part of the chamber into the lower, showing that there is nothing between it and the lower part

Image credit: Tim Clark

Moth Sep 21, 2007

Wednsday 5 September Nasty concrete slab in foreground – shame they couldn’t’ve used one of the huge slabs of rock amongst the trees behind....

Image credit: Tim Clark

Moth Sep 21, 2007

Articles

Grand Dolmen de Ferrussac

Passage Grave

Moth Sep 21, 2007

Access: See the Petit Dolmen de Ferrusac (which we would probably have missed if not for an elderly couple we met at the Grand Dolmen!) The Grand Dolmen is around 300 metres further along, also on the left. Reasonably easily visible through bushes and small trees from the D130.

Visited Wednesday 5 September
Like the similar Dolmen 1 de Coste-Claude, this one had been fascinating us ever since we saw a photo, as it looks like a double-decker dolmen! As with Coste-Claude, it’s actually a passage grave where the chamber is considerably taller than the passage, creating a strange overall impression.

A very impressive monument, noticably larger than Coste-Claude, slightly ‘tattier’ and marred somewhat by a concrete slab used to replace one of the side slabs of the upper part of the chamber.

There are several outcrops of rock immediately to the north of the dolmen, and even some suitable slabs of rock that could surely have been used instead, but I dare say there are reasons why concrete was used....

Perhaps those slabs may be the remnants of other monuments? In Dolmens et Menhirs en Languedoc et Rousillon, Bruno Marc certainly says that there is a menhir in the trees behind, 50 metres to the NW and another (fallen and broken in two) 80 metres to the NE. Not sure if he means 80 metres from the dolmen or from the from the ‘50 metre’ menhir.... We didn’t have time to go looking.

There are certainly several menhirs to the east – 4 that we found: Menhir de la Levade, Menhir de la Cisternette, Menhir 1 du Coulet and one which I guess is Menhir 2 (?) du Coulet.

With the Petit Dolmen just down the road, the area seems to have been a fair old complex of monuments.

Grand Dolmen de Ferrussac

Passage Grave

Jane Sep 21, 2007

Le grand dolmen de Ferrusac is a whopper, built with two levels of capstones, leading into one tall chamber beneath the top deck capstone. One side has been restored with an ugly concrete slab which takes a bit of the ‘wow’ away, but the original capstone and side slab are vast. Each perhaps weighing 20 tones a piece of more. A mighty place!